Publication

Physiological measurements have potential to complement conventional driver monitoring systems based on driving performance and facial features. Heart rate variability (HRV), a physiological marker reflecting changes of the cardiac sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system, have drawn great interest for assessing drivers’ fatigue, stress, task load, etc. In addition, the popularization of consumer wearable heart rate (HR) monitors makes it possible to assess HR in daily driving scenarios. A previous study compared HR measured with a wrist band based on photoplethysmography (PPG) to electrocardiography (ECG) for fatigue detection, and showed that PPG based HR can be used for this application but with reduced detection performance. The chest strap HR monitor is another type of common wearable HR sensor based on ECG measured by dry electrodes. Studies have shown that it can deliver excellent HR measurement in rest and low intensity activity. Its accuracy in driving scenarios has not been validated. This work aims to validate the Polar H10 HR sensor for HRV analysis in real road driving, with the application for driver sleepiness detection