British luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover is developing a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that can understand the driver’s state of mind while behind the wheel and can automatically respond by adjusting the cabin settings to improve the driver’s well being.
The brand is currently traversing a series of new technologies as part of the ‘Tranquil Sanctuary’ vision, to enhance the driving experience and the new Mood Detection system is one part of the concept. The Tranquil Sanctuary is an idea to create a wide range of features for the driver and passenger to ensure the driver remains alert, in control and the passengers are as comfortable as possible.
According to reports, 74% of people feel stressed and overwhelmed every day and the new AI technology in research uses a driver-facing camera and biometric sensing to observe and evaluate the driver’s mood and automatically modify a host of cabin features including heating, ventilation, air conditioning system, media and ambient lighting. The settings will be adjusted in response to the driver’s facial expressions to help tackle stress.
The mood detection system with AI technology continuously monitors the subtleties in the driver’s facial expressions and automatically implements settings such as – if the driver feels stressed, the personalisation settings could select appropriate ambient lighting, if it detects weariness, it could select the driver’s favourite playlist, lower the temperature in response to yawning or other signs of tiredness.
Similar technology may also be developed for rear passengers where a headrest mounted camera could capture the facial expressions of the passenger and could dim the lights, raise the temperature, tint the windows, etc, to help the passenger get to sleep.
All Jaguar Land Rover cars already employ the Driver Condition Monitor which is capable of detecting if a driver feels drowsy and will give an early warning to take a break. The Mood Detection technology is the next generation of the Driver Condition Monitor.
