Driver Drowsiness Detection System

Driver drowsiness is a serious safety issue that contributes significantly to road accidents. This paper presents a hardware-based system for detecting early signs of fatigue in drivers using a low-cost setup. The system’s objective is to issue alerts to drivers showing signs of inattention or drowsiness. It utilizes an infrared eye blink sensor integrated with an Arduino microcontroller, a buzzer, a relay, and a DC motor. The eye blink sensor tracks eyelid movements, and when prolonged eye closure is detected, the system triggers an audible alarm and deactivates the motor to simulate a vehicle stop. The system operates without the use of artificial intelligence or camera-based image processing, relying instead on time-based thresholds. Experimental testing showed consistent activation during simulated drowsy states, though formal metrics such as accuracy and false positive rates were not recorded. While the current model is basic and non-adaptive, it provides a practical foundation for low-resource applications and can be expanded with intelligent features for better real-world usability.