Driver Condition Detection

Abstract

The following chapter deals with driver condition detection. After delineating the factors relevant to detecting a driver's condition and discussing the reasons for addressing the subject in terms of accident risk and the corresponding potentials and challenges (Section 38.1), three potential uses of driver condition detection will be examined: detection of inattentiveness (Section 38.2), detection of drowsiness (Section 38.3) and detection of medical emergencies (e.g. a heart attack; Section 38.4). The respective driver conditions will be defined, relevant measuring variables and their corresponding measuring procedures will be presented and selected applications will be expanded upon. Section 38.5 will address driver condition monitoring systems currently available on the market as well as naming the measuring variables and procedures used by those systems, before a short overview of the problem of potential false alarms is given in Section 1.6.