The person who cuts you off, merges at the last moment when others have been in line or travels slowly in the left lane on a highway can make your blood boil. It happens to all of us.
Some people can let it go, while others get frustrated and a few succumb to road rage. Your reaction may depend on the situation and how you are feeling at the time.
Road rage is something that we generally don’t like to identify with, so we often ignore it. However, anger behind the wheel can affect how we drive and increase the likelihood of getting into a car accident.
New technologies may soon allow your car to recognize when you’re experiencing road rage – as well as other emotions and fatigue that might affect your driving.
According to Gizmag, French auto maker PSA Peugeot Citroen has teamed up with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology to develop an onboard emotion-detection system designed to recognize signs of irritation and fatigue in a driver’s facial expressions – and possibly intervene to keep motorists safe.
Software and technology for reading facial expressions have been used to treat depression and autism, for market research and in courtrooms to gauge jurors’ emotions. Researchers are now exploring the use of these applications in the automobile industry.
So far, facial-expression-reading software can identify seven universal emotions:
Fear
Anger
Joy
Sadness
Disgust
Surprise
Suspicion
While people may display emotions differently, researchers believe that the universal emotions of anger and disgust are sufficient to gauge whether someone is experiencing road rage. They are also looking at fatigue and drowsy-driving issues that may be able to be monitored by instances of eyelid closure.
So, what happens when a car with an emotion-detection system recognizes one of those emotions or eyelid movements? One option may be for a voice to tell the driver, “Perhaps you should pull over and calm down,” or “Pardon me, but you might want to consider taking a rest before continuing to drive.” It is also possible that proximity sensors could prevent a driver from tailgating, for example, or from exceeding a certain speed.
Regardless of whether technology will be able to detect our emotions in the future, the bottom line is that drivers who engage in aggressive driving or fatigued driving may be held liable for their actions when they result in a car accident that causes serious injuries.
The person who cuts you off, merges at the last moment when others have been in line or travels slowly in the left lane on a highway can make your blood boil. It happens to all of us.
Some people can let it go, while others get frustrated and a few succumb to road rage. Your reaction may depend on the situation and how you are feeling at the time.
Road rage is something that we generally don’t like to identify with, so we often ignore it. However, anger behind the wheel can affect how we drive and increase the likelihood of getting into a car accident.
New technologies may soon allow your car to recognize when you’re experiencing road rage – as well as other emotions and fatigue that might affect your driving.
According to Gizmag, French auto maker PSA Peugeot Citroen has teamed up with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology to develop an onboard emotion-detection system designed to recognize signs of irritation and fatigue in a driver’s facial expressions – and possibly intervene to keep motorists safe.
Software and technology for reading facial expressions have been used to treat depression and autism, for market research and in courtrooms to gauge jurors’ emotions. Researchers are now exploring the use of these applications in the automobile industry.
So far, facial-expression-reading software can identify seven universal emotions:
While people may display emotions differently, researchers believe that the universal emotions of anger and disgust are sufficient to gauge whether someone is experiencing road rage. They are also looking at fatigue and drowsy-driving issues that may be able to be monitored by instances of eyelid closure.
So, what happens when a car with an emotion-detection system recognizes one of those emotions or eyelid movements? One option may be for a voice to tell the driver, “Perhaps you should pull over and calm down,” or “Pardon me, but you might want to consider taking a rest before continuing to drive.” It is also possible that proximity sensors could prevent a driver from tailgating, for example, or from exceeding a certain speed.
Regardless of whether technology will be able to detect our emotions in the future, the bottom line is that drivers who engage in aggressive driving or fatigued driving may be held liable for their actions when they result in a car accident that causes serious injuries.