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Driver State Sensor - Fleet

The Seeing Machines DSS or driver state sensor is a fully automatic and robust fatigue warning and driver behavior monitoring device. The system utilizes a miniature camera on the dash board and does not require the driver to wear any sensors. The DSS can provide the driver with feedback on fatigue and attention that increases the safety of your operation, reducing accidents.

Fatigue in Transportation

Driver fatigue is a serious issue concerning almost all areas of fleet or large-scale transportation operations. As in all 24h operations, even when resting times are adhered to, the circadian rhythm and the off duty activities of drivers can result in drowsiness while operating a vehicle. Drowsiness is a strong contributor to heavy vehicle accidents, with the National Highway Transport Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the US estimating 30% to 40% of heavy vehicle accidents to be caused by drowsiness.

DSS Capabilities

The DSS is a device which measures the eyelid opening of the driver, and based on this data derives the drowsiness state. No sensors need to be worn by the driver; a remote sensor on the dashboard observes the face of the driver and measures eyelid closure. There is also no calibration procedure required for new drivers. This means any driver can get behind the wheel without any time consuming calibration, annoying sensor attachment process, or any special knowledge about the system.

Feedback for Drivers

The DSS can be deployed to raise awareness of fatigue in drivers. The system can be configured to provide instant audio feedback to drivers when fatigue events are detected. These warnings are modulated such that a driver can not abuse the system to stay awake. Raising the awareness of fatigue events is a key first step toward reducing fatigue incidents across an organization.

Fleet Management Integration

Beyond immediate warnings to the driver, the DSS can be integrated into fleet management. The data relating to fatigue events can be stored on an on-board memory stick for later analysis, or the data can be directly sent from the DSS to a GPRS communication system to provide real-time warnings when fatigue could present a safety risk.

Benefits of Advanced Fatigue Management

Detection of fatigue events

There are numerous benefits from employing DSS Advanced Fatigue Management beyond in-cabin alarms:

Raise awareness of fatigue as a key issue, resulting in employees paying more attention to their resting times.
Identify hazard conditions: Statistics on fatigue event times, locations and drivers allow for smarter scheduling.
Less fatigue related crashes. This means less interruption, cost, driver injury and lower insurance premiums.

How the DSS works

1. The DSS finds and tracks the face of the driver, calculating head orientation and eyelid closure.

2. These signals are processed to determine information about the driver’s level of fatigue and the amount of attention paid to the road. Real-time audio feedback can be provided to alert the driver of critical situations.

3. This information is then logged by the device and can be analyzed back at base to generate driver performance metrics.

The DSS will provide your organisation with the capability to actively monitor and warn your drivers of their distraction and fatigue levels.

Fatigue Facts:

The National Highway Transport Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the US estimates that 30% to 40% of heavy vehicle accidents are caused by drowsiness.
While accounting for only around 3% of vehicles on the road, heavy vehicles are involved in over 20% of fatal accidents.
The fatigue metric PERCLOS has been proven to have a 93% correlation with drowsiness.

System components

The key components of the DSS are the rugged processing unit (12V-24V power supply), the driver sensor and the unobtrusive and safe infra-red LED illumination units. Auxiliary components include a speaker for audio warnings and a GPS sensor to detect vehicle motion and speed.