DISTRACTED DRIVER DETECTION DEVICE

A distracted driver detection device for use in a vehicle includes a processor, a video camera, and an accelerometer. The processor is configured to compute an eye open ratio (EOR) and a mouth open ratio (MOR). The processor is configured to provide an audio alert signal to an audio alert component and provide a visual alert signal to a visual alert component when the EOR is less than an EOR threshold for a prescribed EOR assessment time, when the MOR is greater than the MOR threshold for a prescribed MOR assessment time, or when the estimate of the acceleration is greater than an acceleration threshold. The EOR and MOR are calculated from facial landmarks that are generated by a Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) algorithm implemented by the processor.