2017 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Sensing, Signal Processing and Security (ICSSS)

Driver Assistant for the Detection of Drowsiness

and Alcohol Effect
Prajnyajit Mohanty
Department of EIE
National Institute of Science
and Technology
Berhampur, Odisha, India
prajnyajitmohanty@gmail.com
Pallem Siddharth
Department of EIE
National Institute of Science
and Technology
Berhampur, Odisha, India
pallemsiddharth@gmail.com
Kunja Bihari Swain
Department of EIE
National Institute of Science
and Technology
Berhampur, Odisha, India
kunja.swain@gmail.com
Rakesh Kumar Patnaik
Department of EIE
National Institute of Science
and Technology
Berhampur, Odisha, India
rkshpatnaik@gmail.com

Abstract—Drowsiness is becoming a severe issue in case of epileptic seizures, movement disorders, or migraine variants
traffic accidents. Normally, Sleeping can be identified from [2,10] or testing for the depth of anaesthesia. It is even
several factors like eye blink level, yawning, gripping force on the possible to see changes in EEG signals when the eyes of a
wheel and so on. But all these measuring techniques will check
person are either opened or closed or the change in the state of
only the physical activities of the human. In some cases, people
will mentally sleep with eyes open for a few seconds. This will drowsiness. Power spectra of EEG signals commonly lie in
make very big accidents in driving. The key work of the project is distinct frequency band from (0.5-100) Hz (Table I).
analysing the brain signals. Human brain consists of millions of
interconnected neurons. This neuron pattern will change TABLE I. Frequency ranges of EEG signals
according to the human thoughts. If a person is mentally sleeping
with eyes open then the attention level brain signal will get Brain Wave Type Frequency in Hz Mental States and Conditions
changed compared to the normal condition. This project work Delta 0.5 to 3 Deep dreamless sleep
uses a forehead single dry electrode which can collect Theta 4 to 7 Fantasy, Imaginary dream
Electroencephalogram (EEG) based brain signals of different Alpha 8 to 12 Relaxed but not drowsy
frequency and amplitude. Then using data aquisition system and Low Beta 13 to 15 Formerly SMR
LABVIEW software the collected signals are analysed. Mid range Beta 16 to 20 Thinking, aware of self
Depending on mental stages diffrent EEG signals are generated. surroundings
The EEG signals are analysed in LABVIEW to reveal the High Beta 21 to 30 Alertness, agitation
features which describes the human stage. Gamma 30 to 100 Motor function, higher mental
activity
Keywords —EEG; LABVIEW; Electrode; Alcohol; Biomedical

I. INTRODUCTION
Drowsiness in drivers causes major road accidents in day
to day life. According to the report of National Sleep
Foundation (NSF) above 51% of drivers drive their vehicle in
a drowsy or sleepy state and about 17% had actually fallen
asleep [1,2]. From earlier research it is found that there are
many number of methods to detect the drowsiness condition,
out of which some techniques are very popular like change in
position of driver which is detected by the camera, measuring
physiological parameters i.e. eye blinking, EEG activities.
The purpose of our work is to detect different mental
conditions and effect of alcohol on the brain signals based on
EEG signals [3,4]. The drowsiness and alcoholic state can be
detected from the frequency plot of different brain signals.
EEG is well known for noninvasive measurement of
different brain waves with high resolution in mill range [5].
These brain-waves measured as electrical activity on the scalp
provides various information about a person.EEG can be
measured from the backside of the cortex or from forehead
depending upon the necessity .In the previous studies EEG has
been used for observing and analyzing the emotions including
testing for brain death or coma, distinguishing between
The presence of alcohol in body affects the normal range
of brain signals .In this study a set of EEG signals is used to
detect whether a person is drunk or not [6]. In reality the
signals received from the human brain contains the
information about the person’s current status. There is a
change in certain range of frequency received from drunken
people. The effect of alcohol causes a frequency shift of the
brain signals and this can be detected much more clearly than
using only breathalyzers. However an alcohol sensor can be
used to cross check the alcohol effect.
II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
For the desired model various types of Electrodes
configuration can be used like 250 number of electrode system ,
10-20 electrode cap and single forehead electrode (SFE) .For
medical diagnosis mainly 250 number of electrode system and
10-20 electrode cap are involved for better accuracy in
measurement. However for detection of mental states SFE is
popularly used [4]. The benefits of using SFE include reliability
and flexibility during movement. The advantage of SFE over
other SFE system is that it avoids motional artifacts

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and reduces the awkwardness in wearing. In addition to the
system a separate alcohol sensor is interfaced to detect the
presence of alcohol. Eye blink detection can be used as an
alternate way to indicate the drowsiness condition [7].
consists of a non-invasive sensor that won’t cause any pain to
the user who wears the headset. The led indicates blue for
normal condition and red for low power supply.
Data acquisition (DAQ) is the process of measuring an
electrical or physical parameters such as voltage, current,
temperature, pressure, or sound with a computer. A DAQ
system consists of sensors, DAQ measurement hardware, and
a computer with programmable software. Compared to earlier
measurement systems, PC-based DAQ systems accomplishes
the processing power, productivity, display, and connectivity
capabilities of industry-based computers providing a more
powerful, flexible, and cost-effective measurement system.
DAQ hardware acts as the interface between a computer and
signals coming from the SFE. It primarily functions as a
device that converts incoming analog signals to digital form so
that a computer can interpret them. The three key components
of a DAQ device used for measuring a signal are the signal
conditioning circuitry, analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and
computer bus.

An alcohol sensor is used for cross verification of adequate

Fig.1.System block diagram
Fig.1 shows the block diagram of the proposed work. The
raw signal is at first captured by a SFE from forehead of the
person. In order to read brain activity the EEG SFE used is a
fully integrated, single chip EEG biosensor. The SFE safely
measures brainwave signals and monitors the attention levels
of individuals as they interact with brain applications [8,9].
The raw brainwaves captured from the user are then
processed digitally, by analyzing those data the stream of
input is passed to the system. The SFE is interfaced with the
computer via data acquisition (DAQ). The signals captured by
SFE are transmitted through wired medium to the DAQ card.
The desired signal conditioning i.e. amplification, filtration,
and linearization is done in the DAQ [10,11].
amount of alcohol in the body. The sensor has high sensitivity
to alcohol gas and resistant to the interference of gasoline,
smoke and vapor. It is suitable for detecting alcohol at various
concentrations. Low cost, long life span and simple drive
circuit makes it popular for its use in various applications. The
alcohol gas sensor consists of total 6-pins including A, H, B
and the other three pins are A, H, B (Fig.2). Out of the total 6-
pins we use only 4 pins. The two pins A, H are used for the
heating purpose and the other two pins are used for the ground
and power. There is a heating system inside the sensor, which
is made up of Aluminum oxide, tin dioxide.

The input received from the DAQ is analysed using

LABVIEW program. LABVIEW is a graphical language
which uses data flow model. LABVIEW programs are termed
as virtual instruments. The desired result is shown in the front
panel.

A. HARDWARE DESCRIPTION

The SFE used here i.e. SFE is one single embedded SFE
system which runs on an external battery source. This is a dry
Fig.2.Pin configuration of an alcohol sensor
SFE that can measure brain waves from the scalp and thus can
easily be worn over hair.It comes with a power switch, a
sensor tip, flexible ear arm and a ground connection ear clip. It

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B.PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Fig.3.Data flow inside a SUBVI
For the simulation of signals the software used is
LABVIEW (Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering
Workbench).It provides an efficient and easy-to-use
environment for code development especially when the user
needs to interact with the program and visualize the results.
Unlike text-based programming languages like C which
follow a control flow execution model, the environment of
programming follows a dataflow execution model.
The basic SUBVI used here is INIT whose function is to
start the communication between the SFE and the computer.
The VI receives packets of data from the SFE.
As shown in Fig.3 the SUBVI STREAM does the
complete job of unpacking the received data of the frames of
512 Hz and 1 Hz filling a structure that could be accessed later
to make calculations. In this SUBVI all the major signals are
computed.
The block PRECISE is a part of SUBVI STREAM which
is used to capture the raw EEG signal (512 Hz) and the
variable length data (1 Hz).It introduces some delay which
causes the signals to wait to pass to the AUTO block.
The block AUTO is used to do the recompilation of
information of the frames, but sequentially, first the raw EEG
and then later the variable length data.
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The SUBVI CLOSE is used when the communication
between the SFE and computer is done so that the serial port
channel is closed for other programs to start using this
resource.
The data coming from SFE is resolved into stream of bytes to
reconstruct the various types of brainwave data. The data are
then interpreted and used for various types of brainwave
signals (including Attention, Meditation, and signal quality
data).
The raw signals generated from the brain are captured by
the SFE and then passed to the SUBVI STREAM through
INIT SUBVI, which is used for the communication purpose
between SFE and computer. The input ports associated with
INIT block are comport, timeout and buffer size.
The STREAM SUBVI samples the data in two frames i.e.
512 Hz (raw value) and 1 Hz (calculated variable length). The
data which is coming from the SFE is executed until a
synchronous byte is encountered. It should be ensured that the
data occurred after the synchronized byte should be a
synchronized data for further processing.
The data generated after the synchronized one i.e. PLENGTH
should be less than synchronized byte. The data obtained after the
synchronized byte is first stored in an array and then the lowest 8
bits of data are summed up and inverted. The inverted data is then
compared with the next data obtained.
Another alternate way for indication of drowsiness can
be done using eye blink detection. Constant eye blink shows
the awakened state of a person. If the duration between two
successive eye blinks crosses the normal range i.e. (2-10sec)
indicates that the person is in a drowsy state. A buzzer is
attached to the system using Arduino, which is activated once
the duration of two successive eye blink exceeds the normal
range (Fig.4). For cross verification of alcohol presence an
alcohol sensor is interfaced with the system using Arduino
interfacing mechanism.
Fig.4.Interfacing of alcohol sensor with Arduino module
 2017 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Sensing, Signal Processing and Security (ICSSS)

III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The raw EEG signal of a normal person is recorded and

shown on the front panel (Fig.5). The hike in amplitude
signifies an eye blink.

Fig.6.EEG of Normal person (Red) Vs Drunken person (Blue) on time axis

So the alcoholic condition of the driver can be detected by

observing the alpha wave .It can also be verified from the
reading of alcohol sensor interfaced with the system.
Fig.5.Waveform of raw EEG signal

From a typical observation (Table II) we found the

different brain waves lies in the amplitude range of 10 to 90
(μV) whereas the standard amplitude range lies between 5 to
100 (μV).

TABLE II. Range of signals in amplitude

Types of Signals Amplitude(μV) Standard range(μV)

Delta 80 50 to 100
Theta 18 5 to 20
Alpha 64 50 to 100
Beta 24 5 to 30
Gamma 13 10 to 30

As shown in Fig.6 the raw EEG of a normal person and that

of a drunken person is observed to be varied in a large amplitude
range. The blue line signifies the EEG of a drunken person while
the red line indicates the EEG of a normal person.

The raw signal fetched lies in the frequency range of (0.5-
100 Hz). However the normal range of the waves differs in the
presence of alcohol in the body. From observation it is found
that during alcoholic condition all the four waves except alpha
increased to a certain extent while alpha wave decreased.
Fig.7.Front Panel view for detection of eye blink
It is observed that when there is no eye blinking occurred
for 15 seconds duration the buzzer starts ringing and in the
front panel a red coloured indicator starts glowing until an eye
blink happens which is noticed with green coloured indicator
on the LABVIEW front panel, shown in Fig.7.

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IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the raw EEG signal is detected using an EEG
SFE and is compared with the signal obtained from an
alcoholic person. The detection of eye blink signifies that
whether a person is in drowsy state or not. If the person is not
blinking the eye then it indicates that the person is sleeping
and hence a buzzer starts ringing. The eye blink can also be
detected from the raw EEG, the hike in the amplitude shows
that the person is blinking the eye and hence there is a change
in the amplitude of the signal. From the results it is possible to
prevent drivers from causing accidents due to drunken driving.
Since this method deals with biological signals to identify the
presence of alcohol in the body. The acquired EEG signal is
processed and analyzed for alcoholic activity. On the basis of
analysis performed, the EEG wave of a normal person from
that of a drunken person based on the condition i.e., the alpha
activity is decreased. The above finding helps to make the
driver aware of drowsiness and save multiple lives every year
while driving.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors wish to acknowledge the lab facility provided
by the Centre of Excellence NI lab, National Institute of
Science and Technology.
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