Yawn Alert For Weary Drivers

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that at least 100,000 road crashes are caused by driver fatigue each year.
But what if your car could keep an eye on you while you drive and nudge you when you starting yawning and warn you to pull over and take a break? That's the aim of a new in-car yawn-detection system being developed by an international team in the US and India.

The new program is based around an in-car camera hooked up to image-processing software that captures a sequence of images of the driver's face. It then analyses changes in the face and accurately identifies yawning as distinct from other facial movements such as smiling, talking, and singing. The yawn frequency is then correlated with fatigue behavior and could then be hooked up to a warning system to alert drivers to the need to take a break.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090727102042.htm