Abstract:
Drowsiness is the state where a person is almost asleep or very lightly asleep. It refers to an inability to keep awake. In this thesis drowsiness and sleepiness are considered synonymous, but the term drowsiness will be used. Another concept commonly used is fatigue, which is an extreme tiredness that comes from physical or mental activity. Drowsiness can also be described by the grade of wakefulness or vigilance. Wakefulness is the same as alertness or a state of sleep inability, whereas vigilance can be defined as watchfulness or a state where one is prepared for something to happen. There are several factors which affect the grade of wakefulness. The time spent to carry out a task (time on task) and the amount of sleep during night are the most important factors. Other factors which are responsible are the amount of light, sound, temperature and oxygen content. Motivation and monotony of the task will also have an effect on the grade of wakefulness. Drowsiness can be measured by using physiological measures, performance measures, self-report or expert ratings. In the present trend suggests driving and navigation support systems are getting importance because it is crucial in supporting drivers in several conditions in automobile industry. It is important for driving support systems to detect the status/activity of driver’s consciousness. Detecting onset of driver fatigue could prevent the accidents caused by drowsy driving. It is proposed to detect / analyse the driver fatigue by the application of dedicated physiological indicators such as electroencephalography and also facial features such as eyelid movements based on template matching using neural network technique for closed eyes versus opened eyes. EEG signal is one of the most predictive and reliable measurements by the analysis of alpha, beta and theta band power etc., which are considered as direct factors associated with human drowsiness. The parameters such as blink duration and opening time changes reliably with increasing drowsiness. in this system LabView is used for analysing the data for this application.

Keywords: Drowsiness, EEG, LabView