In this paper, a novel drowsiness detection algorithm using eye-blink pattern is proposed. The proposed drowsiness detection model using finite automata makes it easy to detect eye-blink, drowsiness and sleep by checking the number of input symbols standing for closed eye state only. Also it increases the accuracy by taking vertical projection histogram after locating the eye region using the feature of horizontal projection histogram, and minimizes the external effects such as eyebrows or black-framed glasses. Experimental results in eye-blinks detection using the JZU eye-blink database show that our approach achieves more than 93% precision and high performance.