System and method for driver distraction determination

A method for determining distraction of a driver of a vehicle, comprising:

• sampling sensor measurements at an onboard system of the vehicle during a driving session, wherein the sensor measurements comprise a first image of the driver recorded at a first time point during the driving session and a second image of the driver recorded at a second time point during the driving session, wherein the second time point is subsequent to the first time point;
• processing the first image at a convolutional neural network (CNN) of a driver distraction module of the onboard system to generate a set of network weights and a first output;
• processing the second image at the CNN using the set of network weights to generate a second output;
• and
• determining that the driver of the vehicle is characterized by the distracted state based on a comparison between the first output and the second output.

An onboard system for determining distraction of a driver of a vehicle, comprising:

• a housing, rigidly mounted to the vehicle proximal a driver's seat of the vehicle;
• a first image sensor, coupled to and retained by the housing, arranged to record a first image of the driver at a first resolution;
• a processor, coupled to and retained by the housing, that executes:
• a face detection module that transforms the first image into a first sub-image and a second sub-image, wherein the first sub-image comprises a portion of the first image defining a face of the driver, wherein the first sub-image has the first resolution, and wherein the second sub-image comprises the first image transformed to have a second resolution less than the first resolution, and
• a driver distraction module that characterizes the driver as in a distracted state based on a combination of the first sub-image and the second sub-image;
• and
• an output mechanism, coupled to and retained by the housing, that generates an output signal in response to the driver distraction module characterizing the driver in the distracted state.