Eyetracker might prevent future accidents by sleepy drivers

Falling asleep behind the wheel is not funny at all, but many of us do take things for granted whenever we head out on a long road trip, by not getting enough rest before and hoping that some Dunkin’ Donuts and coffee should be adequate to see us through to our destination. The Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology decided not to play dice on the road by coming up with a simple camera system which can monitor sleepy drivers, calling it the Eyetracker. It will feature camera modules that detect whether the eye is closed for longer than a user-defined interval, sounding an alarm for a positive identification. Four or even six cameras will keep watch over the driver’s eyes, evaluating up to 200 images per second to identify the line of vision, so it doesn’t matter if your head moves to the left or right. It would be great to see current car menufacturers incorporate the Eyetracker into their future models as a staple.