1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a system and method for detecting the eyes of a driver of a vehicle and, more particularly, to a system and method for detecting the eyes of a driver of a vehicle using a single camera.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Driver safety and comfort has always been an area of concern for vehicle manufacturing companies. Vehicle manufacturing companies invest heavily in the development of vehicle safety systems. In recent years, there has been significant effort in developing a driver cognizance and assistance (DCA) system to assist a driver during various operational conditions of the vehicle thereby reducing stress level and increasing the comfort level of the driver. Some of the existing vehicles include variations of the DCA system, which require a manual input for initialization. For example, several existing systems allow the driver to adjust the rear-view mirrors using a keypad. However, this can be inconvenient to the driver in some situations. For example, if, while driving a vehicle, the driver changes his seating posture, all of the rear-view mirrors will have to be adjusted accordingly, which may be inconvenient for the driver and might even lead to accidents.
One known system attempts to solve the above mentioned problems by using a pair of cameras for detecting the eyes of the driver. The cameras are located on the dashboard of the vehicle in front of the driver, and take pictures of the driver's face. Image processing is performed to identify the location of the eyes of the driver. The eye location can then be used for DCA initialization to perform automatic adjustment of various vehicle components, such as the rear-view mirrors. Further, the eye location can be used for driver drowsiness detection. However, the use of two single cameras adds to the cost of the vehicle since another camera is required in addition to the one already present as a part of the on-board DCA system. Further, use of two cameras adds to the image processing time, further affecting the DCA initialization time.