As automotive design and technologies evolve, car manufacturers try to find a way to make vehicles safer for everyone. There are sensors to keep vehicles on their lane. There are cars that brakes automatically when a pedestrian is along the way. And, of course, there are driverless cars.
In the near future, smiling or frowning at one's car may mean cruising smoothly at one's pace or the car reminding the driver to slow down because the person might be experiencing road rage.
Experts at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland in collaboration with PSA Peugeot Citroen have developed a potential in-car technology that can that can recognize facial expression of drivers.
"This is very useful in video game development, medicine, marketing, and, perhaps less obviously, in driver safety. We know that in addition to fatigue, the emotional state of the driver is a risk factor. Irritation, in particular, can make drivers more aggressive and less attentive. EPFL researchers, in collaboration with PSA Peugeot Citroën, have developed an on-board emotion detector based on the analysis of facial expressions," EPFL stated.
The researchers at EPFL's Signal Processing 5 Laboratory made use of an infrared camera strategically placed behind the car's steering wheel. In order to simplify the process, the team opted to monitor and analyze only two human expressions-- disgust and anger.
During the development of the prototype, the scientists at the LTS5 taught the system to recognize facial expressions using photos of subjects. Experiments with videos of facial expressions were also used, as well as training the system in real-life settings inside a vehicle.
"Overall, the system worked well and irritation could be accurately detected in the majority of cases. When the test failed, it was usually because this state is very variable from individual to individual. This is where the difficulty will always lie, given the diversity of how we express anger," EPFL explained.
Hua Gao, one of the EPFL scientists who worked on the emotion sensors, said that the diversity of the human expressions is the biggest challenge for the development and has recommended development a system that can learn facial expressions in real time or having an effective human-machine interface where advanced algorithm can be used to monitor facial expressions.
The challenged faced by the EPFL and Peugeot are nothing new. Toyota has been experimenting on a similar technology since 2006 and the mood-sensing vehicle is still on its infancy last time the world heard about it in 2012.
With Apple and Android crawling up to the dashboard, there may come a time in the near future when an application can precisely say that you're going through road rage. Maybe wearables and their health apps will also be integrated. Of course, those who are old enough to remember Knight Rider will not pick any other car for their ride.
