Yawn-detecting car nudges sleepy drivers

A long day, an empty road and too much Classic FM: the perfect recipe for a late-night car crash.

But what if your car could tell when you were getting sleepy and ask you to take a break (or at least switch over to Planet Rock)?

Scientists at the Vanderbilt University in Nashville have come up with a webcam that can tell when you are yawning and catch you before you drift off.

Yawn for the camera

The new system 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 analyses changes in the face and accurately identifies yawning as distinct from other facial movements such as smiling, talking, and singing.

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