The facial recognition system uses an infrared camera system to identify the driver’s emotions.

Researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne or EPFL are collaborating closely with PSA Peugeot Citroen and developing an in-car emotion detection system designed to watch out for emotions like anger and disgust. (Video)

The system uses an infrared camera system to identify the driver’s emotions. The main idea is that the system will detect when the driver is stressed or irritated, emotions that may affect his or her driving. The system can be used to flash warning signals or trigger a limiting function on the car’s speed to make the driver aware and maintain safe driving.

The system was tested several times, especially since people express irritation differently. The system had to “learn” to identify anger and disgust using photos of people expressing the emotions. The same test was conducted with videos. The tests showed that the system was able to identify the emotions in a majority of the cases.

The researchers are still working on improving the system. They are also working on a fatigue detector and a detector for other states like distraction. They are also looking into lip reading or vocal recognition.

Check out a quick demo of the technology below.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDP1w8sWHhg[/youtube]

Via psfk