A Pupil Diameter Measurement System for Accident Prevention

A large percentage of traffic accidents are caused by driver negligence or inattentiveness. If negligence or inattentiveness can be detected before an accident occurs, the number of accidents may be decreased. The pupil diameter of a person changes under various conditions. For instance, the pupil diameter of a person who is thinking becomes large, and in contrast, the pupil diameter of a tired person becomes small. These effects have been proven through a number of psychology experiments. The pupil diameter, along with data concerning the blink duration and the change in eye direction are gathered by the proposed system. The system detects the attention level of a person based on the pupil diameter. The recognition rate of a person´s attention level has been improved using these ancillary data regarding the blink duration and the change in eye direction. In the present study, we describe a newly developed robust pupil diameter measurement system that minimizes the influence of certain circumstances and warns the driver when it judges the driver to be more prone to accidents.