2.2 Lane Keeping Assistant System
Whenever a car leaves its lane unintentionally, it is a risk
to other vehicles. In six serious accidents on German roads,
more than a third involved in this type of accident were killed
[6]. To avoid this particular situation, a new information
system to assist drivers to keep driving in their lane has been
developed. Using the idea of forward-looking safe monitoring
to warn drivers before an unsafe situation occurs is the aim.
This can be accomplished by using a combination of
functions. A camera on the inside of the windscreen will
monitor the road and the line markings at the same time. When
the car leaves its lane, the system will warn the driver [6].
Theoretically, leaving a lane unintentionally could be caused
for several reasons. Studies have shown phone-use is related
to driver distraction which leads to drivers inability to keep
a proper lane position, also lane deviation can be caused by
tuning the radio, answering mobile phone calls, and recently
texting messages from a mobile phone which completely
distracts the driver as it requires not only one hand but also
movement of the driver’s head [7], [8]. Moreover, according
to the above reference, distractions from inside the car are
more susceptible than outside the car, Lam [9] implied that
there are two basic categories for visual focus, the road scene
and the interior. Therefore, Pohl, Brik and Westervall [8]
presented an idea to assist the driver to keep in lane by
judging the driver’s distraction levels. Their approach makes
use of the driver’s face vector which in principle is the
direction of the driver’s nose tip, and eyeball detection.
In their system, the basic layout of the entire system is combined
by three components, 1) the distraction modules 2) lanekeeping
module and 3) report to an intervention module.
The processes start if the vehicle departs from the lane and
the driver is detected as distracted, then an intervention is
triggered which sends a warning to the steering wheel.