A team of students from Ankara's Başkent University and their electronic engineering department consultant has successfully developed a camera system to monitor drivers' fatigue and prevent accidents caused by falling asleep at the wheel.
The system, which uses a camera placed inside the vehicle, tracks the driver's eye movements, including the shrinking of the eyes and the opening and closing intervals of the eyelids. In the event of drowsiness, the system provides both an audible warning through the vehicle's speaker and a written warning on the LCD screen.
The system, which had been developed with the support of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBITAK), was undertaken by students Kutay Orhan Tezcan, Ahmet Burak Şahin and Aysu Doğa Demirhan under the consultancy of teaching assistant Deniz Karaçor. It aims to enhance road safety and reduce accidents caused by fatigue and insomnia.
Aysu Doğa Demirhan, one of the students in charge, shared that they embarked on the project to develop something beneficial for people in daily life.
"Our starting point was that our project could be used in today's world and benefit people. So, for example, we observed doctors falling asleep behind the wheel when they were tired after the shift and long-distance drivers falling asleep after long hours of driving. Unfortunately, we had observations about injuries and deaths as a result," she explained.
Noting that they have developed a project to solve this problem, Demirhan elaborated on the specifications of the warning system and said that the camera allocated in the vehicle determined six points on both eyes and counted the blinking rate.
"When this rate is exceeded, a warning mechanism is activated in text and on the speaker, saying 'insomnia has been detected' on a small LCD to the driver. It can also detect both masks and glasses. We have a prototype. It's a simple system that we can quickly integrate into the car," she explained.
