VISUAL DISTRACTION DETECTION METHOD IN DRIVING MONITORING SYSTEM

A system and method of operation of a visual distraction detection module for use within a driving monitoring system or implemented within a driving monitoring method, which can implement: a driver's gaze zone estimation data for each captured frame where the gaze zones can be previously defined for the specific vehicle, and vehicle info captured from the vehicle. The system or method can perform scoring of a plurality of time windows by a value ranging from 0 to 1, based on the potential usefulness level (PUL) of the gaze zone recognized for each frame, then, can create a data vector, and can extract the possible driver's secondary task. The system and method can estimate the instant driver's visual distraction level as a discrete output {0, 1, 2, 3}, where the gaze zones can be re-classified for each captured frame, and the zones' PUL table can be dynamically updated.