Evaluation of Drowsiness by HRV Measures : Proposal of prediction method of low arousal state

The aim of this study was to propose a useful prediction method of drowsy state of drivers, so that the result is applicable to the development of ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) that can warn drivers of their low arousal state and to prevent driving under low arousal level from occurring. The EEG (electroencephalography) and ECG (electrocardiography) during a monotonous task was measured, and it was investigated how these measures change under the low arousal (drowsy) state. The EEG measurement was added to in order to monitor arousal level more the time series of mean power frequency of EEG was plotted on X-bar control chart. Heart rate variability (HRV) measure RRV3 were derived on the basis of R-R intervals (interbeat intervals) obtained from ECG. Using a Bayesian probability, we tried to predict the timing when the participant actually felt drowsy. As a result, the prediction accuracy differed by the state of participant. When the drowsiness of participant was remarkable, the prediction method was effective to some extent. On the other hand, the proposed method could not predict the drowsy state reliably when the participant did not feel drowsiness to a larger extent