There is a substantial amount of evidence that suggests that driver drowsiness plays a significant role in road accidents. Alarming recent statistics are raising the interest in equipping vehicles with driver drowsiness detection systems. This dissertation describes the design and implementation of a driver drowsiness detection system that is based on the analysis of visual input consisting of the driver's face and eyes. The resulting system combines off-the-shelf software components for face detection, human skin color detection and eye state classification in a novel way. It follows a behavioral methodology by performing a non-invasive monitoring of external cues describing a driver's level of drowsiness. We look at this complex problem from a systems engineering point of view in order to go from a proof-of-concept prototype to a stable software framework. Our system utilizes two detection and analysis methods: (i) face detection with eye region extrapolation and (ii) eye state classification. Additionally, we use two confirmation processes - one based on custom skin color detection, the other based on nod detection - to make the system more robust and resilient while not sacrificing speed significantly. The system was designed to be dynamic and adaptable to conform to the current conditions and hardware capabilities. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Caring for the chronically ill is a growing phenomenon that deserves careful attention and research, since the quality of life of the palliative caregiver is threatened by the continuous exposure to psychological, physiological, as well as relational burdens. A hermeneutic phenomenological study was used to explore palliative caregivers‟ experiences of compassion fatigue when caring for chronically ill patients in a hospice setting. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Bophelong Community Care Centre‟s palliative caregivers between the ages of 20 and 60 years who were employed in a hospice for a minimum of at least two years, thus well-placed to describe their experiences of compassion fatigue when caring for chronically ill patients in a hospice setting. Data was collected through individual interviews, recorded and transcribed. Using thematic analysis, meaningful patterns and themes of data were discovered to better understand compassion fatigue as a phenomenon of interest. The findings pointed to four categories, i.e. the effects of compassion fatigue on palliative caregivers‟ emotional wellbeing, personal and work relationships, physical discomfort, and spiritual awareness, that describe the experiences of palliative caregivers of compassion fatigue in a hospice setting, thus providing a holistic understanding of the complexity of compassion fatigue in a palliative care hospice setting. / Psychology / M. A. (Psychology)