Road safety is a global issue that Seeing Machines is already addressing today. Our camera-based driver monitoring system (DMS) technology assesses driver attentiveness and alertness levels. It can help to address the risks of fatigue and distraction in real time and prevent accidents.

As more governments seek to reduce road-related trauma, regulation is being introduced to make in-vehicle technologies a requirement. DMS technology is one such example. But it is only part of the story. For a true safety outcome, the HMI design is equally important. DMS technology can detect risky behaviours or unsafe driver states. But the HMI can help facilitate behavioural change. Combining the two is game-changing.

Our Human Factors scientists, Dr Megan Mulhall, Dr Angus McKerral and Dr Shiyan Yang, led the workshop, in close collaboration with Professor Natasha Merat and Dr Rafael Gonçalves from ITS Leeds, and Dr Ilse Harms from RDW. They explored issues with DMS-HMI integration, considering this in both manual and assisted driving environments.

Watch the video to learn more, or read a summary of the workshop introduction below.

AutomotiveUI’23 Workshop Video

Workshop Introduction on HMI Design in the Context of DMS and Automation: How Should the System Respond?

With driver fatigue and distraction-related crashes on the rise, real-time DMS technology has gained increasing attention from regulators and leading road safety bodies worldwide. These in-vehicle technologies can help advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) features adapt to high-risk behaviours and encourage behavioural change in drivers to reduce the likelihood of a serious accident.

Driver Monitoring Systems refer to a category of safety features that are used to infer information about a driver’s state or behaviour. There are two main categories of DMS, known as ‘indirect’ and ‘direct’.

DMS technology is increasingly considered an important factor in understanding driver-vehicle interaction. However fully realising their safety potential requires accurate monitoring be paired with effective HMI to facilitate behavioural change when risky behaviours or unsafe driver states are detected.

“DMS as a solution to risky driver behaviour requires both reliable detection of driver state and an effective system response (or set of responses) when a risky state is detected”.

System responses can range from driver alerts to adapting the vehicle’s ADAS in real time, based on a driver’s detected capacity. The challenge is determining when and how a system should respond, taking into consideration a range of factors. These include:

• the nature of different driver states (voluntary/involuntary, transient/progressive)
• the levels of risk (criticality and immediacy)
• physical elements (for example, visual cues will be ineffective for a driver who has fallen asleep) and
• a driver’s perception of their own state and the associated risk (will affect how receptive they are to HMI and vehicle intervention strategies).

“The design of vehicle responses must balance perceived risk and legality of driver states with the actual and immediate risk that particular impairment states represent”.

While presenting unique challenges, DMS technology allows for continuous, real-time feedback on a driver’s response to HMI, providing the opportunity for adaptive alerts and escalation should they continue to ignore warnings.