Peugeot Citreon and EPFL have developed an on-board driver emotion detector.
Emotional recognition in action Image: EPFL |
Emotions can adversely affect drivers and Switzerland's École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne along with the French automotive manufacturer are exploring how to improve driver safety. Using new technology they track driver behaviour using a facial detection device.
The researchers are using photos and videos of people expressing anger and disgust to help the system "learn" to identify the two emotions.
They have had signifant success in picking up irritation but there were also some failures because people display emotions in different ways.
Fatigue
With fatigue identified as another significant risk factor for drivers, the project is measuring the percentage of eyelid closure as a way of detecting the potential for drivers to fall asleep at the wheel. The laboratory is also working on detecting distraction and lip reading for use in vocal recognition.