The invention relates to a driver state identifying system based on detection of a steering wheel. The driver state identifying system comprises a motion sensor of the steering wheel, a brain wave detection helmet, a wireless communication interface and a Freescale IMX6 processor, wherein the motion sensor of the steering wheel is used for detecting the motion state of the automobile steering wheel; the brain wave detection helmet is used for detecting the brain wave feature of a driver; the IMX6 processor is respectively connected with the motion sensor of the steering wheel, the brain wave detection helmet and the wireless communication interface, and is used for determining whether the detection of the brain wave detection helmet is started or not according to the motion state, determining the current driving state of the driver according to the analysis result of the brain wave feature after the detection is started, and sending the current driving state to the wireless communication interface. The driver state identifying system has the advantage that on the basis of judging the motion state of the automobile steering wheel, the analysis on the driver state is started, so while the detection efficiency is guaranteed, the unnecessary power consumption of the system is decreased.