See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/303772868

Real-time sleep detection and warning system to ensure driver's safety based on
EEG

Conference Paper · April 2016

DOI: 10.1109/DDECS.2016.7482475

CITATIONS READS
5 719

4 authors, including:

Micheal Saleab Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Technische Universität München The German University in Cairo
6 PUBLICATIONS 34 CITATIONS 103 PUBLICATIONS 662 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Klaus Hofmann
Technische Universität Darmstadt
151 PUBLICATIONS 567 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Micheal Saleab on 18 December 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Real-Time Sleep Detection and Warning System to
Ensure Driver’s Safety Based on EEG

Michael S. Saleab*, Mohamed A. Abd El Ghany**, Ramez M. Toma*, Klaus Hofmann***

Electronics Engineering Dept., German University Cairo, Egypt*
Electronics Engineering Dept., German University Cairo, Egypt, TU Darmstadt, Germany**
Integrated Electronics Systems Lab, TU Darmstadt, Germany***
Emails: micheal.salib@student.guc.edu.eg, mohamed.abdel-ghany@guc.edu.eg,
ramez.toma@student.guc.edu.eg, klaus.hofmann@ies.tu-darmstadt.de

Abstract—A Real-Time Sleep Detection and Warning System
for Driver’s Safety Based on EEG is proposed and implemented
to ensure the safety for the drivers and pilots. This system is
implemented to estimate and measure the driver attention, the
percentage of oxygen in the blood of the driver and to check if
driver is failing a sleep. The design and implementation of oxygen
saturation sensor is also provided. In addition this system
contains a Real time vital signs monitoring system to measure the
vital signs values. The proposed system achieved an Accuracy of
96.3%, 100% of sensitivity, 92.4% of Predictability and 93%
Specificity. The accuracy, predictability and specificity of the
vital signs monitoring system is increased by 2%, 3% and 1%,
respectively.
Keywords-brain sensor; monitoring system; wearable device;
avionics; real-time; vital signs; drowsiness; pilot; driver; EEG
I. INTRODUCTION
Sleep Detection and Warning System to Ensure Driver’s
Safety is a system which measures the driver attention and
check if driver is sleeping as described in[1][2][3][4]. It also
sends alerts to the driver if the driver is not concentrated in
driving or if the driver is sleeping.
hospital or being under supervision[9]. Although different
researches had been issued In Sleep Detection and Warning
System, non of them provided vital signs monitoring system.
The main focus of this paper is to present an efficient Sleep
Detection and Warning System using brain sensor. It operates
with low power and fully wearable that can be used outdoors.
The oxygen saturation sensor is proposed to make an
integrated efficient and wearable system. The system also
provides Electrocardiography, Electrical conductance of the
skin which can be used to detect the driver emotional status. It
is critical to implement a system that can be used outdoors
without the need of personal computer. In addition a Real-time
Vital Signs monitoring system is added to the system to check
the driver medical status The architecture of the proposed
system is shown in Figure 1.

Real-time Vital Signs monitoring system[5][6][7][8] is a

system which monitors the vital signs of the driver on a real-
time scale which can be viewed by the driver anywhere and
anytime and can be transmitted to his supervisor over Internet
[9]. The Real-time Vital Signs monitoring system is added to
the Sleep Detection and Warning System to ensure that the
driver medical status is in good condition and to check that the
driver is eligible to drive. The vital signs of any driver are
very critical and essential to be monitored. As any changes
that may happen may affect the driver health. Driver vital
signs and emotional parameters are mainly Heart Rate (HR), The paper is organized as follows: In Section II, an
Blood Pressure (BP), Oxygen Saturation (SPO2)[10][11], architecture of the efficient Real-time Vital Signs Monitoring
Glucose Level, Body Temperature (T) and Muscle System is proposed. Data collection from the sensors and
Stamina(M). These parameters are critical to be reported for devices to the control unit is presented in Section III. In
some drivers that are exposed to some diseases. As the change Section IV, the designing and implementation of the oxygen
in any of these parameters may affect drivers health saturation sensor is provided. Some implementation results of
negatively. The System allows the doctor (Supervisor) to view the Sleep Detection System is presented in Section V. In
and save these parameters at any time over Internet on a section VI, the implementation of the Vital Signs Monitoring
database[12]. The real time system which patient can monitor System is presented. Finally, some conclusions are provided in
their vital sign at home or anywhere without remains at the Section VII.
II. VITAL SIGNS MONITORING SYSTEM
The Real-time Vital Signs monitoring system is consist of
sensors, control/processing unit, bluetooth module, driver
monitoring and supervisor monitoring devices as shown in
Figure 2. The medical sensors are to send the vital activities
measurements to the control unit. This control unit analyze the
data and transmits it via Bluetooth module.
The Bluetooth module sends this data to the driver devices.
This project contains two applications for the driver; one on
the driver smart phone and another one on the driver personal
computer. The driver devices give the driver alarm if there is
problem in his vital activities. The driver devices send all the
vital activities measurements to the server.
The server receives the vital activities measurements to the
server from all the driver and put this data in organized format
and saves it in a text file. Then it sends the information’s to the
supervisor devices. The system contains two applications for
the supervisor; one on his smart phone and another one on his
personal computer. The supervisor can choose which driver he
wants to see his data from his personal applications. The
supervisor can send his recommendations to this driver. In
section III data collection process will be described.
III. DATA COLLECTION FROM THE SENSORS AND DEVICES TO
THE CONTROL UNIT
The system consists of 5 sensors and 2 devices. All of these
sensors send the data to the control unit. The control unit
collects this data as an input. The control unit has an algorithm
that receives the signals from the sensors and processes the
signals to get vital activities values. The sensors are used to
measure the exact values of the vital activities as follows:
1) Pulse sensor: Is a very small sensor which provides
measurements at user defined time intervals. It measures
heart rate, inter-beat interval and electrocardiography.
The pulse sensor transmits a signal to the control unit.
First the resolution of the signal must be high enough to
make the difference between the beats clear and
observable. A beat to beat timing resolution of 2
milliseconds is achieved with sample rate of 500 Hz. In
addition a real time sample counter is established to
receive the signal from the sensor in real time with
almost no time delay.
2) Oxygen saturation sensor: In the proposed and
implemented system an Oxygen saturation sensor is
designed. The sensor measures the signal and transmits it
to the control unit. The oxygen saturation sensor process
is described in details in section IV.
3) Body Temperature sensor: This sensor contains a
variable resistance. The variable resistance is very
sensitive to the temperature. [13] An algorithm is
designed to convert the value of resistance to
temperature using control unit. A process is designed to
measure the voltage and current. The variable resistance
is provided which is used to detect the exact value of
temperature.
4) Galvanic skin response (GSR) sensor kit: GSR, stand-ing
for galvanic skin response. It is a method of measuring
the electrical conductance of the skin. Using the
electrical conductance of the skin, the emotional status
can be measured. The Galvanic skin response transmits
the change of electrical conductance of the skin in the
form of voltage to the control unit. The emotional status
is detected using this voltage graph.
5) Muscle sensor kit: This sensor measures the muscle
activity by detecting its electric potential, referred to as
electromyography (EMG). The sensor transmits the
measured signal to the control unit. This signal used to
measure the Muscle stamina. An amplified, rectified, and
smoothed signal is proceed and converted to digital
signal using ADC (Analog to Digital converter) in the
control unit block.
This system consists of 2 devices, these 2 devices are
described below. In addition, an infrared device is used to
transmit data.
1) ACCU-CHEK Performa: Wireless infrared connected
device which records the blood glucose level.
2) ACCU-CHEK Smart Pix: Infrared device that collects
the data from ACCU-CHEK Performa and transmits this
data to personal computer or the control unit.
3) BOSO-Medicus prestige: A Blood pressure monitor that
measures and saves the data. Then the data is transmits
via Bluetooth.
The control unit of the proposed design receives the measured
signals from all these sensors, process these signal, converts it
to digital data and puts this data in the form that can be
transmitted using bluetooth. In this design AVR Atmega328p
chip is used as a control unit. The control unit is responsible to
convert the signals from the sensors to real vital activities
values. Figure 3 is a diagram shows the transmission of the
data to the control unit and the conversation of the signals to
vital activity measurements using the control unit.

IV. OXYGEN SATURATION SENSOR
The main objective of the proposed system is to make it
wearable system. The sensors are used instead of devices to
reduce the total power consumption. The control unit is
responsible for the process operations for all the sensors. The
oxygen saturation sensor is proposed to detect the exact value
of oxygen in the blood. The real time value is measured and
transmitted to the system and the system updates this value
immediately.
The core theory behind the oxygen saturation sensor is the
variance of absorption of photons. These photons go to the
human tissues with different wavelengths. The vessels under
the tissues carry two types of blood; Deoxy-Hemoglobin and
Hemoglobin. The Hemoglobin is oxygenated and the Deoxy-
Hemoglobin is deoxygenated.
These two types of blood are used to measure the percentage
of oxygen in the blood. When a light have a wave length range
from 650nm-1000nm[10][11], it is most probably to be
absorbed by the oxygen. The other tissues in the body, have a
very low absorption coefficient compared with Hemoglobin
and Deoxy-Hemoglobin. When a light with wavelength
around 650nm is emitted to human blood, it will be absorbed
by Deoxy-Hemoglobin. When a light with wavelength around
1000nm is emitted to human blood, it will be absorbed by
Hemoglobin. The ratio between the light absorbed by
Hemoglobin and Deoxy-Hemoglobin is used to calculate the
oxygen percentage in blood as shown in Equations 1 and 2 in
section V part C .
As shown in Figure 4, the transmitter circuit transmits the
optical signal to the receiver. The receiver unit consists of
optical receiver to receive the signal and processing unit to
convert the optical signal to analog signal. The receiver unit
transmits the analog signal to the control unit. The control
unit converts the analog signal to digital and transmits the
oxygen saturation value to the system.
A. Oxygen Saturation Transmitter Circuit
The transmitter circuit is responsible to transmit the light to
the blood vessels. Hemoglobin and Deoxy-Hemoglobin are
sensitive to light with wave length 650nm and 1000nm. The
red light has a wave length range between 620nm and 750nm
and infrared light has a wave length close to 1000nm. So these
two light sources LED’s can be used as emitter sources; the
red LED for Deoxy-Hemoglobin and the infrared LED for
Hemoglobin.
B. Oxygen Saturation Receiver Circuit
The receiver circuit is implemented to receive the light from
the transmitter and convert this optical signal to analog signal
that can be transmitted to the control unit. The core of this
circuit is the OPT-101 IC which is responsible to receive the
optical signal and converts this signal to analog signal. The
analog signal is received by the control unit, that will convert
the analog signal to digital signal.
C. Oxygen saturation control unit
The control unit is the brain of the sensor. The control unit is
responsible to sent a square wave signal to the transmitter
LEDs (Red LED and Infrared LED). In addition, it receives
the output from the receiver circuit. This control unit converts
the received optical signal to analog signal. Then the
processing operation is achieved to estimate the percentage of
oxygen in blood as shown in eq. 1 and 2.
The Parameters of the above Equations:
• ARED is the rate of absorb of the light from the Red LED.
• AIR is the rate of absorb of the light from the IR LED.
• BloodOx is percentage of oxygen in the blood.
V. SLEEP DETECTION SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
A Real-Time Sleep Detection and Warning System is
proposed and implemented using an EEG headset. This system
can be used for drivers and pilots to check their concentration.
The system will sends alarms to the drivers when they are
beginning to fall asleep. The concept of this system is an
algorithm designed to filter the signal from EEG to 4
categories low Beta, high Beta, low alpha and high alpha[14].
The Neurosky Mindset headset EEG is used in this system as
an EEG electrode. The Neurosky Mindset headset estimate the
alpha, beta, theta and gamma waves comes from the brain and
transmits their values using Bluetooth technology. The
measurements from the Neurosky Mindset headset is processed
using an algorithm in the control unit. This algorithm based on
dividing the signal into 30 seconds baseline signal, and divide
this 30 seconds signal into 15360 baseline signal.
Incase of falling asleep the driver smartphone will produce a
warning alarm, eq.3 and eq.5 is for calculating low alpha
threshold and high alpha threshold respectively. And eq.4 for
comparing low alpha threshold with the low alpha signal from
the brain-sensor. Also eq.6 is for comparing high alpha
threshold with the high alpha signal from the brain-sensor.
If the case of eq.4 and eq.6 is confirmed this means that
driver is sleeping.
• A is the threshold of low alpha.
• a1 and a2 are constants, this constants are derived by
comparing The baseline signal to the signal amplitude
during sleeping.
• A1 is low alpha mean.
• A2 is low alpha standard deviation.
• B is the threshold of high alpha.
• b1 and b2 are constants, this constants are derived by
comparing the baseline signal to the signal amplitude
during sleeping.
• B1 is high alpha mean.
• B2 is high alpha standard deviation.
Using Neurosky brains sensor headset the proposed Sleep
Detection System is implemented shows an accuracy of 97.4%
and the Kappa value is 91%. Using the calculation methods
in[15], given the collecting 20 data sets from 30 driver to have
a total 600 drivers data, the performance parameters are
calculated. By comparison with others Sleep Detection
Systems as conducted in table I the proposed and implemented
system shows a positive values. In addition this system uses
low power, wearable and can be used outdoors. Also the
proposed system estimate the concentration percentage and
the sleeping status and transmit it to the driver smartphone. As
conducted in table I.
VI. VITAL SIGNS MONITORING SYSTEM
IMPLEMENTATION
The Vital Signs Monitoring System consists of two parts;
hardware part and software. The hardware part consists of 5
sensors, 2 small devices and control unit as described in
section III. The control unit is implemented using micro-
controller chip (AVR Atmega328p). The printed circuit board
(PCB) is designed using Eagle tool and implemented in a very
small scale.
The software of the Vital Signs Monitoring System consists
of 4 applications, 2 Android applications and 2 applications
for the personal computer. The driver has Android application
on his smart phone and another one on his personal computer.
The supervisor has also one on his personal computer and
another one on his smart phone. These applications are
provided to present the vital activities of the drivers;
Electrocardiography, Electrical conductance of the skin, Heart
Rate (HR), Inter-beat interval (IBI), Blood Pressure (BP),
Oxygen Saturation (SPO2), Glucose Level, Body Temperature application will sent S.M.S to the emergency calling for
(T) and Muscle Stamina(M). In addition, the emotional status ambulance, in addition to another S.M.S to his supervisor as
could be provided. This applications will notify the driver in shown in Figure 5.
real time if he has any vital problem or emotional problem. If
there is any parameter has a value more than or less than the
average value the driver applications will notify the driver and
also will sent a notification to the driver supervisor to make
him view this driver data.

The software of the Vital Signs Monitoring System consists

of 4 applications, 2 Android applications and 2 applications
for the personal computer. The driver has Android application
on his smart phone and another one on his personal computer.
The supervisor has also one on his personal computer and
another one on his smart phone. These applications are
provided to present the vital activities of the drivers;
Electrocardiography, Electrical conductance of the skin, Heart
Rate (HR), Inter-beat interval (IBI), Blood Pressure (BP),
Oxygen Saturation (SPO2), Glucose Level, Body Temperature
(T) and Muscle Stamina(M). In addition, the emotional status
could be provided. This applications will notify the driver in
real time if he has any vital problem or emotional problem. If
there is any parameter has a value more than or less than the
average value the driver applications will notify the driver and
also will sent a notification to the driver supervisor to make
him view this driver data.
The average value for the temperature is 37 degree celsius.
A normal resting heart rate for adults ranges from 60 to 100
beats a minute, and if there is a workouts the normal will be
120. The blood pressure perfect value is (120/80). Oxygen
saturation percentage should be higher than 95%.
The average value of the glucose percentage in blood during
fasting should range between 70 to 100, and less than 140
after eating. [16] shown the average values stated by Missouri
State University. And if there is a problem in the muscle
stamina the stamina value will be lower than 500. If the
system shows negative results which means results out of this
range the system will contact the emergency and will sent
alarm to the driver supervisor. The emotional status is
estimated according to change of the signal. As if the signal
shows steady graph this means that the driver is in relaxation
status, and if there is disturbance in the signal this means that
the driver is hungry, and if there is sudden change in the signal
this means that the driver is under stress.
Using Biomedical sensors, devices and server the proposed
Real-time Vital Signs Monitoring System is implemented. The
accuracy of the proposed system is 97% and the Kappa value
is 93%. Using the calculation methods in [15], given the
collecting 10 data sets from 90 driver to have a total 900
drivers data, the performance parameters are calculated. The
proposed system improves the performance as compared to
the conventional system. In addition, the proposed system is
fully wearable no need to a personal computer. It consumes
low power as it is mostly dependent on reduced power sensors
instead of the devices used in the previous work. This feature
makes the system outdoors-friendly. A comparison between
different systems is conducted in Table II.
In addition the proposed system has user-friendly
applications and interface, no need for an expert to use it. It
could be used by any one in no time. It also works in real time
so the measurements are always synchronized. The accuracy
is the degree to which the result of a measurement,
calculation, or specification conforms to the correct value or
the standard. Sensitivity is is an absolute quantity, the smallest
absolute amount of change that can be detected by a
measurement. Predictability is the degree to which a correct
prediction of a system’s state can be made either qualitatively
or quantitatively. Specificity relates to the test’s ability to
correctly detect drivers without a problem.

This server saves the data of each driver in a text file that
shows all the parameters and time. Thus there is a file that
saves the data of each driver, the supervisor can view this log
at any time. If there is a problem in server, this file will be
saved immediately on the supervisor personal computer. The
supervisor has Android application on his smart phone, and
another one on his personal computer. The supervisor can sent
his recommendations to the driver through the server. The Vital Signs Monitoring System achieves an Accuracy of 97%,
driver can read this recommendations using the driver 100% of sensitivity, 93% of Predictability and 94% of
applications. In the implementation of the proposed system a Specificity. The accuracy of the proposed system is increased
feature is added to the proposed system to integrate the by 2% as compared to the conventional monitoring system.
proposed system with the hospital and the emergency. If the The predictability and specificity of the Vital Signs
driver has a problem in his vital activities, the driver android Monitoring System are increased by 3% and 1%, respectively.
VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper the Real-Time Sleep Detection and Warning
System to Ensure Driver’s Safety Based on EEG is proposed
and implemented. The oxygen saturation is also implemented
to estimate the oxygen percentage in the blood. The proposed
system is fully wearable system. First every system is
implemented separately to compare the system with others
implemented to system to make sure that the system accuracy
and efficiency is acceptable. Then both systems the Real-Time
Sleep Detection and the Vital Signs Monitoring System is
integrated together on the same control unit.
The warning system (Vital Signs Monitoring System) shows
positive results The system performs Accuracy of 97%, 100%
of sensitivity, 93% of Predictability and 94% Specificity. The
accuracy of the proposed system is increased by 2% as
compared to the conventional monitoring system. The
predictability and specificity of the proposed system are
i n c r e a s e d b y 3 % a n d 1 % , r e s p e c t i v e l y. A l s o
Electrocardiography and Electrical conductance of the skin is
added to the system. The Real-Time Sleep Detection system
shows also positive results it shows an accuracy of 97.4%,
100% of Sensitivity and 96% of Specificity.
The Vital Signs Monitoring System and the Real-Time Sleep
Detection system is integrated on the same system using the
same control unit to implement a new system. This new
system can ensure 100% of safety for the drivers and pilots as
all the vital signs parameters in addition to the emotional
status and the electrocardiogram is measured. Also the Real-
Time Sleep Detection system is added to measure the driver
concentration percentage also to produce warning if the driver
is start to falling asleep.
Post the integration the two system into one system. The
system performs Accuracy of 96.3%, 100% of Sensitivity,
92.4% of Predictability and 93% Specificity.
REFERENCES
[1] Ruei-Cheng Wu Sheng-Fu Liang Wen-Hung Chao Yu-Jie Chen Chin- Teng
Lin, Fellow and Tzyy-Ping Jung. ”EEG-Based Drowsiness Estimation
for Safety Driving Using Independent Component Analysis”. IEEE
trasnactions on circuits and systems, regular papers, vol.52, no.12,
December 2005.
[2] Bryan Van Hal. ”Real-time Stage 1 Sleep Detection and Warning System
Using a Low-Cost EEG Headset”. MSC thesis in GRAND VALLEY
STATE UNIVERSITY Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the
Degree of Masters of Science in Engineering, April 2014.
[3] Chung W-Y Lee B-G, Lee B-L. ”Mobile Healthcare for Automatic Driving
Sleep-Onset Detection Using Wavelet-Based EEG and Respi- ration
Signals ”. Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), September 2014.
[4] Mikaili M Mardi Z, Ashtiani SNM. ”EEG-based Drowsiness Detection for
Safe Driving Using Chaotic Features and Statistical Tests ”. Journal of
Medical Signals and Sensors., May 2011.
[5] Guimaraes J.A. Fernandes, B. and R. Simoes. ”Vital Signs Monitoring and
Management using Mobile Devices”. Information Systems and
View publication stats
Technologies (CISTI), 6th Iberian Conference on, pp. 1-6, September
2011.
[6] A.E. Tan K.K.M. Chan and K. Rambabu. ”Circularly Polarized Ultra-
Wideband Radar System for Vital Signs Monitoring”. IEEE Transactions
on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 61, no. 5, May 2013.
[7] J. Dominguez G. Boothby A. Das V. Lopez-J. Nguyen T. ; Banister R.E. ;
Lie D.Y.C. Hall, T. Tsay. ”Robust Phased Array Non-Contact Vital Signs
Monitoring in an Office Cubicle Setting”. Intelligent Green Building
and Smart Grid (IGBSG), pp. 1-4, April 2014.
[8] H. Nor N.M. Ibrahim T. Nyamasvisva T.E. Gulcharan, N.F.I. Daud.
”Investigation and Development of Remote Vital Signs Monitoring
Device Using Wireless Communication”. Intelligent and Advanced
Systems (ICIAS), 2014 5th, pp. 1-6, June 2014.
[9] M. M. Baig and H. GholamHosseini. ”Wireless remote patient moni-
toring in older adults”. Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
(EMBC), 35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE, pp. 2429-
2432, July 2013.
[10] Yong-Su Seo Young-Dong Lee, Sang-Joong Jung and Wan-Young
Chung. ”Measurement of Motion Activity during Ambulatory Using
Pulse Oximeter and Triaxial Accelerometer”. Third International
Conference on Convergence and Hybrid Information Technology pp.
436 - 441, November 2008.
[11] Mike McEvoy. ”Oxymoron: Our Love-Hate Relationship with Oxygen”.
16th Annual Respiratory Care Symposium Rising to the Challenge: A
Pulmonary Medicine Update, March 2010.
[12] M. Rajarajan D. Weerasinghe and V. Rakocevic. ”Device Data Protection
in Mobile Healthcare Applications Electronic Healthcare”. Springer
Berlin Heidelberg, vol. 0001, pp. 82-89, September 2008.
[13] ”advanced industrial systems”. http://www.advindsys.com/ApNotes/
YSI400SeriesProbesRvsT.htm.
[14] Sotelo M.A. Barea R. Lopez M.E Bergasa L.M., Nuevo J. ”Real-Time
system for monitoring driver vigilance”. IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp.
Syst, 2006.
[15] H. L. Kundel and M. Polansky. ”Measurement of observer agreement”.
Radiology journal, vol. 228, pp. 303-308, August 2003.
[16] https://shp.missouri.edu/pt/pdf/emergency.pdf. Missouri State Univer-
sity.
[17] M. J. Connolly M. M. Baig, H. Gholamhosseini and G. Kashfi. ”Real-
time Vital Signs Monitoring and Interpretation System for Early
Detection of Multiple Physical Signs in Older Adults”. Biomedical and
Health Informatics (BHI) IEEE-EMBS International Conference pp. 355
- 358, June 2014.
[18] M. M. Baig. ”Smart Vital Signs Monitoring and Novel Falls Prediction
System for Older Adults”. PHD thesis Auckland University of Tech-
nology in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy (PhD), 2014.
[19] C. Saez M. Guarini A. Cipriano B. Garayar G. Lema R. Canessa C.
Sacco C. Oberli, J. Urzua and M. Irarrazaval. ”An expert system for
monitor alarm integration”. Journal of Clinical Monitoring and
Computing, vol. 15(1), pp. 29- 35, January 1999.