visage|SDK automotive edition: Introducing NIR driver monitoring

• 21 Sep, 2021
• by Valentina Zezelj

A driver monitoring system is only as good as the data it can collect. However, gathering reliable data can be challenging in a dynamic environment such as the cabin of a moving car. Our latest release – visage|SDK automotive edition – successfully tackles light changes, occlusions, rotations, and more to help make driving safer.

Technology optimized for NIR driver monitoring

Our technology has been recognized by hundreds of clients across industries. Being lightweight, robust and customizable has made it an integral part of various vision-based applications. One of its fastest-growing application fields throughout the last years has been driver monitoring.

A driver monitoring system relies on AI to stay on the lookout for any signs of distractedness or inattentiveness. This way, the system can react to potentially dangerous states and behaviors on time to help prevent accidents.

Video: Driver monitoring using visage|SDK

Until now, our tracker had been optimized for RGB cameras only. In other words, it required good lighting to capture usable images. However, when it comes to driver monitoring, the lighting often changes so RGB cameras cannot always keep up. This is where near-infrared (NIR) cameras come in.

Near-infrared is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is just outside the range of what humans can see. NIR cameras take clear images even in poor lighting conditions, at night, or when the driver is wearing sunglasses. This makes them a key component of a driver monitoring system.

visage|SDK automotive edition introduces face tracking designed to successfully process NIR images. It features our new algorithm trained and refined using an extensive proprietary dataset of images in the NIR spectrum.

As a result, visage|SDK automotive edition reliably tracks images regardless of the lighting conditions. It achieves impressive performance even in challenging conditions such as reflections, face occlusions (such as protective masks, beards, glasses, etc.), extreme head rotations, and more.

Video: NIR driver monitoring using visage|SDK automotive edition

The automotive edition of visage|SDK is currently available for Linux. Ambarella, Xilinx, Windows, Android and other platforms are available upon request.

Last but not least, face tracking can be combined with other modules of visageSDK to introduce additional functionalities. This includes FaceAnalysis, which estimates age, gender and emotions, and FaceRecognition, used to verify identities.

Get started today

Self-driving cars have been a hot topic for almost a century, but full autonomy is still not in sight. This creates the necessity for driver monitoring, as the role of the driver fades to the background, but isn’t completely dismissed.

The automotive edition of visage|SDK makes it easy to monitor the driver’s face in real time, and gather data needed to create a safer, more comfortable in-cabin experience.

Find out what our technology can do by requesting your free evaluation license or get in touch to discuss the development of custom features or specialized turnkey solutions.