Vigilance monitoring for operator safety: A simulation study on highway driving

IntroductionAlertness of individuals operating vehicles, aircrafts, and machinery is a pre-requisite for safety of the individual and for avoiding economic losses. In this paper, we present a new technique for determining the alertness level of the operator and elaborate the methodology for the specific case of highway drivingMethodOur hypothesis is that the time derivative of force exerted by the driver at the vehicle-human interfaces can be used to construct a signature of individual driving styles and to discern different levels of alertnessResultsIn this study, we present experimental results corroborating this hypothesis and introduce a parameter, ‘spikiness index,’ for the time series data of the force derivative to quantify driver alertnessImpact on IndustryThe low cost, ruggedness, and low-volume data processing requirements of the proposed technique give it a competitive edge over existing predominantly image processing based vigilance monitoring systems.