SleepyWheels: An ensemble model for drowsiness detection leading to accident prevention

Abstract

<p>Approximately 30% of traffic accidents in the world are attributed to driver drowsiness. Various approaches have been suggested by different research teams to detect drowsiness, but their methods have drawbacks. Some involve invasive techniques that cause driver discomfort, some involve too many false positives that cause distractions while driving while others rely on complex models that are too resource-intensive. In this paper, we present SleepyWheels, a novel drowsiness detection system. Our key insight is the combined use of two lightweight neural networks: a binary classifier and a facial landmark detector. This innovative approach minimizes false positives and proves resilient across diverse testing scenarios, such as different camera positions, variations in skin tone and when there is obscurement of facial features by objects like eyewear. Research outcomes include a working prototype of the system, a custom dataset for training the classifier and a trained model, which attains an impressive 97% accuracy rate. Deployment and testing were performed on Windows 10 but the system can be deployed on edge devices like Raspberry Pi. The lightweight nature of the models unlocks possibilities of deployment on mobile and embedded devices for use in vehicles.</p>