Driver Condition Detection

This 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 (Sect. 1), three potential uses of driver condition detection are examined: detection of inattentiveness (Sect. 2), detection of drowsiness (Sect. 3), and detection of medical emergencies (e.g., a heart attack; Sect. 4). The respective driver conditions are defined, relevant measuring variables and their corresponding measuring procedures present, and selected applications expanded upon. Section 5 addresses driver condition monitoring systems currently available on the market and names the measuring variables and procedures used by those systems, before giving a short overview of the problem of potential false alarms in Sect. 6