
Ask HN: How would you design an alarm for sleeping bus drivers? - nyc111
There was an accident recently here in Turkey when the bus driver fell asleep. Several people died including the driver. This happens too frequently in the cut-throat industry of transportation. How would you design a system to trigger an alarm when the driver shows signs of falling asleep? What would you try to catch? His closing eyes? His nodding? Or something else?
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claudiulodro
FitBit that starts beeping super loudly and vibrating when it thinks you're
sleeping. The technology is already there and affordable, it just needs loud
beeping.

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nyc111
This doesn't seem to be true. I wrote to FitBit and this is their answer: "...
unfortunately the Fitbit trackers can't notify you when you are falling
asleep. They have only silent alarms, which you can setup manually and
reminders to move for every hour. The tracker vibrates on your wrist,
reminding you to stand up and walk. For more information, please visit Silent
Alarms, Reminders to Move."

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tyingq
There are different approaches, things like cameras, brain wave monitoring,
etc. I would guess the ones that use heart rate would be the least expensive
and easiest to retrofit. No idea how the different approaches perform though.
Here's one that seems well suited for retrofit:
[http://www.plesseysemiconductors.com/products/warden/](http://www.plesseysemiconductors.com/products/warden/)

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tylercubell
[https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/a/3349](https://cogsci.stackexchange.com/a/3349)

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Piskvorrr
Volvo seems to track head position: looking at the ceiling or floor is highly
suspect.

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Raed667
Low tech : 3 colored buttons, that the driver has to press in a random order
as showed in their dashboard at random intervals.

High tech: Face monitoring with computer vision to detect signs of sleep.

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twobyfour
Those buttons sound like an unfortunate way to distract a driver.

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Raed667
This system is used in trains.

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twobyfour
Where the driver is interacting with many fewer other vehicles and has fewer
demands on his or her attention.

