Cell-phone Based Drowsiness Monitoring and Management System

Abstract

In recent years, driving fatigue and cognitive lapses have gained increasing attentions in the fields of public security, especially regarding the safe manipulation of vehicles. Studies have explored the relation between electroencephalogram (EEG) and driving behavior and several of them further proposed effective approaches (e. g., auditory feedback) to arouse subjects from drowsiness. However, these studies were performed under laboratory-oriented configurations using tethered, ponderous EEG equipment. In real environments, the setup of bulky cognitive monitoring equipment with a long-prep time is not feasible. Therefore, this study extends previous laboratory work by developing an on-line Drowsiness Monitoring and Management (DMM) System featuring a mobile wireless dry-sensor EEG headgear and a cell-phone based real-time EEG processing platform. The DMM system can continuously observe EEG dynamics, deliver arousing feedback to users experiencing momentary cognitive lapses, and assess the efficacy of the feedback in near real-time.