New Facial Recognition Software May Detect Looming Road Rage 133
cartechboy writes "Well, since we have license plate readers tracking drivers, and GPS breaking down we're you're headed — its probably time for someone to know what mood you're in when you're driving. (Quick hint: often not a good one). Researchers at Switzerland's École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have prototyped a dashboard camera that tracks facial movements and expressions to read a person's emotions while behind the wheel. The team has partnered with PSA Peugeot Citroën to create a version for actual cars to determine when drivers are angry — and have high potential for road rage. One challenge for the technology has been the wide range of expressions drivers have when they're pissed. Some people smile, for example. (Maybe as they raise their middle finger.) The engineers are working on future revs to be able to tell when drivers are fatigued or even just distracted." The detection part sounds interesting; coupled with remote kill-switches that some government agencies want, and ever deeper fly-by-wire technologies, it's sounds downright dystopian, though.
Re:Not that much more dystopian... (Score:4, Interesting)
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A lot less deadly too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L... [wikipedia.org]
In the US, roughly 100 people per day die in vehicle crashes.
It's only 2 per state! /sarcasm
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On the other hand, that's a lot more people our systems have to support.
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Re:Not that much more dystopian... (Score:4)
as someone who has gone through periods of some nasty sleep disorders (so much better since I got some treatment), it doesn't really always happen like that. Generally yes, you lay down, close your eyes, THEN sleep. I do too....now.
However an overly fatigued person, like I used to be, doesn't always do this. I have been mostly alseep and slipping into dream....before my eyes were closed.
I shit you not, this is how I almost ended up with a similar crash. I was driving home alone from a party one night. I hadn't been drinking, but I was tired. I was doing a normal highway speed, in the 70s anyway.
What happened in a nutsehll was I fell asleep and drifted to the shoulder. I woke up and turned the car, glancing off the side rail. How much of a glance? Well I didn't slow down, but the ENTIRE side of my car had a long superficial scratch down the side with a few minor dents. So....I was an inch or two from total disaster.
Thing is, my eyes didn't close. I was entering an open eye dream state and then falling off. I know this because of the disassociated way I was thinking at the time. Litterally, my head was tilting to the side and the thought in my head....and I am not being cute here was actually "Oh look, the road is turning sideways, that isn't supposed to happen.". Luckily then I snapped back awake and turned the wheel but.... point being....closed eyes is not necessarily going to do it.
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Yes, people can sleep with their eyes open. The biggest threat is micro-sleeping. You're tired enough that your brain says enough is enough and it shuts down for a moment to multiple seconds. You'll have absolutely no bodily control and normally don't even realized it happened.
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That explains your sig. Your eyes are in backwards. ;)
Seriously, you are right. And the more fatigued you are, the more likely you are to wind up in a waking-dream sort of state, eyes open and kinda regarding what you see as hallucination, rather than just going to sleep.
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> That explains your sig. Your eyes are in backwards. ;)
Lets um...go with that. It is, at least, related to the topic of hallucination, states of consciousness and perception.
> Seriously, you are right. And the more fatigued you are, the more likely you are to wind up in a
> waking-dream sort of state
Very true, but the really odd part is how normal it can feel. I mean its one thing to be fatigued, but with sleep apnea, especially like I have (rather severe) I am pretty sure I never experienced a goo
Re: Not that much more dystopian... (Score:1)
Happened to me once. I drove all day between sites fixing it equipment in northern England. On the motorway one day I was so tired I feel asleep. I woke up moments later to the sound of traffic cones flying over the front of the car, and realised I was driving on the hard shoulder and that the traffic cones saved my life by waking me up before I drove over the embankment. Scary stuff.
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Probably they settle for the eye tracking. Sensing distraction and sleepiness would prevent a lot of accidents. The car would alarm the driver or gently park by itself.
Re:Not that much more dystopian... (Score:5, Funny)
Probably they settle for the eye tracking. Sensing distraction and sleepiness would prevent a lot of accidents. The car would alarm the driver or gently park by itself.
Something like that (my emphasis in bold) would make it impossible for most guys to get anywhere in a car in most beach cities. Even worse, I can hear my wife now saying, "Would you keep your eyes on the road! We can't get there if the car parks itself every time some eye candy in a bikini is in view."
Cheers,
Dave
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Also, teenagers wouldn't be able to ever leave the driveway.
Not that that would be a bad thing.
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So naturally being a location aware and personalized the system parks the car by the beach or slows the car down.
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It'll also cause a lot more accidents. People will think they can drive in no matter what physical or mental state they're in so long as the car doesn't complain. You'll get a lot more DUIs ("car said I was ok") and tired drivers ("car thinks I'm awake enough") even on cars that don't have the system ("I thought it was activated").
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Re:Not that much more dystopian... (Score:5, Insightful)
> No, you do not have an inalienable right to act out your aggressions on a publicly-funded highway.
However this doesn't actually look for people acting out, it looks at facial expressions to determine if a person is mad. This may be interesting itself but, I would submit the population of people who get mad while driving is so much larger than those who actually act out their aggression that this is unlikely to be the least bit useful.
This is using the fact that all criminals are found with water in their system as an excuse to monitor people who drink water.
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They could save a LOT of money on this, no need for fancy eye tracking, etc.
Just have some simple sound recongnition, and list for how many times I yell MotherFucker per
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All that would prove for me, is that I am listening to the news on the radio.
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Just have some simple sound recongnition, and list for how many times I yell MotherFucker per minute, and that would be an easy gauge on my mood and opinion of the pinheads driving around me.
I guess I can't listen to my hiphop and rap any more?
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If it goes by facial expressions, I might not even be mad. Maybe I just have gas.
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that statement is irrelevant red herring to use of this technology
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"No, you do not have an inalienable right to act out your aggressions on a publicly-funded highway."
That's certainly true. But I think we'd be better off treating the cause, rather than the symptoms. I might not have a right to "act out aggressions" on the highway. But you don't have a right to drive like an asshole and piss off everybody around you, either.
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angry nerds (Score:2, Funny)
And that actually would settle me back down.
At least until I got a ticket for littering.
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At least you wouldn't get a ticket for using your phone in the car... so you probably come out ahead!
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I will never own a device with a remote kill switch that I do not have full and sole control over. (One reason to have a dumb phone. All they can kill is the service.)
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There won't ever be a remote kill switch. Its such a stupid idea it won't be implemented. The only people who would push for it are idiotic nanny state morons who want to protect the children from dangerous speeders or car chases. Meanwhile they become an awesome attack vector for hackers looking to fuck up the evening commute for a laugh.
The only thing I can see becoming a reality are those high power "RF cannons" which emit such a high power signal that they scramble a vehicles electrical system effective
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The only thing I can see becoming a reality are those high power "RF cannons" which emit such a high power signal that they scramble a vehicles electrical system effectively killing it. Though I suspect there could be legal problems if its use results in a deadly crash and the victims family sues the cops for wrongful death.
I would imagine things such as this would be deployed only in cases where current devices such as spike strips are used, ie high speed chases. The upside would be that you wouldn't have to predict the path of the suspect if one of the chase cars can just shoot it with a cannon. I don't really think they would be viable (and certainly not safe) if they were used in a basic traffic stop or anything like that. Might be useful in cases like sobriety checkpoints if someone tries to bail from the line, althoug
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There won't ever be a remote kill switch. Its such a stupid idea it won't be implemented.
This attitude is dangerous and enables scary power grabs. I would have thought that indefinite detention, drone executions of American citizens without due process and outlawing of protests on private property would never happen in the US either, but they all did.
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Absolutely right. There is no idea so stupid, or so counterproductive, or so liberty-killing, that some politician or bureaucrat can't manage to implement it. Do you =really= know what all the riders are on each and every bill?? Do you really know what's in those federal regulations that keep growing by tens of thousands of pages every year??
You seem upset Dave. (Score:3)
Why don't you take a stresstab and lie down for awhile.
I'll just slow the car down in the meantime.
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Why don't you take a stresstab and lie down for awhile.
I'll just slow the car down in the meantime.
But I am stressed because the axe murder is chasing me!
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I'd like to see a remake where Dave goes into a rage after being locked out, and bleeps up Hal beyond all recognition. For example, pull the chips out of sequence, and make the now-retarded Hal into a toaster and burn the toast to high hell, and then put it in the sink and let water slowly fill it. "Daisey's need water, Hal. Doesn't your lame tune database know that?"
Prepare for a long commute (Score:5, Interesting)
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Kill switches for when drivers get angry? If you thought gridlock was bad now, just wait until 50 angry stalled drivers are in front of you.
That would shut off my car quite quickly... :)
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If in front of me there were 50 stalled drivers blocking the road, it might make me angry.
The driver in front of me might have had 49 stalled drivers blocking the road.
Time to learn to control your facial expressions? (Score:1)
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executed?
Violence breeds violence. They should either learn to deal with events that happen on the road appropriately, or not be allowed to drive.
Executed is a solution thought up by stupid short sighted people.
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executed?
Violence breeds violence. They should either learn to deal with events that happen on the road appropriately, or not be allowed to drive.
Executed is a solution thought up by stupid short sighted people.
Violence does not breed violence. If that were true we would have gone extinct ages ago.
Fact: All major conflicts in human history have been solved with violence.
Fact: Killing a violent person prevents them from being violent in the future.
Fact: Letting violent people run loose lets them commit more violence,
Fact: Rehabilitation doesn't work. The vast majority of offenders recidivate.
In almost all cases, people are violent not because of a lack of coping skills, a mental illness, etc, but because they
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Fact: Killing all humans prevents them from perpetrating and being the victim of violence in the future.
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I think we need to install a camera on your computer to prevent posting while enraged.
No, I'm not angry! (Score:1)
even angrier (Score:3)
So someone gets cut off. They get mad. Then the system auto-controlls or shuts the car down.
Then the person gets even madder.
And as they cannot even chase the original cause will then just open up on the traffic flow in general.
I don't see this fixing anything unless it autoinjects some nice drugs.
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Amen. If you want to detect impending road rage, find a way to detect shitty drivers. You can probably base that on car behavior (that is, what the vehicle is doing) and you won't need to recognize faces or guess at human behavior at all.
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It doesn't have to be a kill switch. It could be something more subtle, like cap your speed at 55mph. The thing is no matter what they end up doing, if the car reacts to you getting suddenly angry in any way that will just serve to increase your road rage.
Injecting xanax would further inhibit your ability to drive, and let us not forget that for most people "happyness drugs" are highly addictive. It would serve no one if people were to develop a habit of getting into their car and getting really angry just
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Cap my speed at 55, so I can't get out of the way of the idiot who is careering across six lanes, or I wind up blocking my lane which would otherwise move at 75mph... yeah, that'll improve tempers, right.
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Thank you for restating my point.
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Some things can't be said too often!
what? (Score:2)
"and GPS breaking down we're you're headed "
equate to:
"and GPS breaking down we are you are headed "
Pattern recognition (Score:2)
and GPS breaking down we're you're headed
If they're as reliable as Slashdot's automated grammar screening I don't have much faith in the technology
Shut up already. (Score:5, Interesting)
Jee, hyperbole much? Nowhere in the article is it mentioned that there will be any dystopian government interaction. That was your own shitty opinion piece. Its the same crap the article postulates:
Stop it. Please. Those are some of the most idiotic question ever asked. The car wont do anything as this wont be installed in them. Why not? Simple: there are no answers for any of those silly questions that would avoid a legal minefield.
Examples:
Driver is angry and car detects it. So the car notifies the authorities.
- Authorities don't care enough about some butthurt driver to stop looking for speeders which make the county/city/town money. Besides after the 1000th notification of road rage in the first ten minutes of their highway patrol shift they will just turn the damn computer off.
Driver is angry and car detects it. So the car applies the brakes......
- Causing the driver to lose control or a rear end collision. Car manufacturer is sued into oblivion. Camera recalled.
Driver is angry and car detects it. So the car switches the radio to soothing music....
- Which distracts the driver causing an accident. Or the driver can blame a road rage accident on the sudden blast of Michael Bolton which startled them while enjoying a beautiful morning on the highway in bumper to bumper traffic. Car manufacturer is sued into oblivion. Camera recalled.
Not so serious but:
Driver is angry and car detects it. So the car tells a knock knock joke....
Driver is offended by joke along with a concerned watchdog group. Public outrage ensues. Camera recalled.
What's the appropriate response?
None. People will get angry. Its better to just let them scream or pound the steering wheel and let it out and then have a laugh. If it results in an accident and the drivers anger can be directly linked to the accident then let the courts decide the appropriate punishment.
Re:Shut up already. (Score:4, Insightful)
I remember reading about nano-technology years ago in a car magazine. One use for this was that you could have the paint on your car change color. So you didn't have to worry about getting an appropriate colored car because you could change the color of your car any time you wanted.
Ladies and Gentlemen, new for 2017--The Mood Car!
That's right! Sensors will detect your mood and change the color of your car! Angry? Your car turns a flaming red. Calm and relaxed? A nice deep blue. So if I cut off some other guy and see his car turn red, I know I'd better get out of there!
TV too? (Score:2)
Next thing you know your TV will detect when you're raging and change the channel.
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Fox News would go out of business.
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Are you kidding? Fox News/MSNBC/Democracy Now etc are all niches for people who can't stand to see anything not conforming to their world view.
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True, but their world view is mostly about being angry at someone or something. The shows on those channels, and the way stories are presented, are specifically designed to get people angry and upset. The viewers are comfortable in their anger. They embrace it, and look forward to more of it. It's a kind of madness, I think.
this is why I wear game day face dazzle paint (Score:1)
defeats all the facial recognition software, which already has a high failure rate.
Basically, if it worked in WW II or in Korea, it still works.
Welcome to Eastern Germany, Amerikka!
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Only sheep won't have dazzle paint
Solution in search of a problem. (Score:2)
A solution in search of a problem. With driverless cars on the verge of being a reality, road rage will become a thing of the past.
I wonder if this qualifies (Score:2)
MS-Rage Wizard (Score:2)
It's already been tried, but it didn't work out so well. [youtube.com]
Get bad drivers off of the roads; problem solved. (Score:1)
How about getting bad drivers off of the roads altogether. We all make mistakes here and there, but some people are very aggressive jerks and they need to go. They cause traffic problems, backups, accidents, and roadrage. I don't defend roadrage at all ever, but humans are humans. I get tense seeing people break the law and getting away with it. Almost anyone can be provoked into some kind of angry reaction, and some people unfortunately act on that anger. I would like to remove the root causes of the
I look mean when I'm happy (Score:1)
OK, I have that sort of face. Blame it on genes or too much time indoors, but when I'm not thinking about anything in particular -- happy even -- I look angry.
I was with a group of friends once, enjoying the beach, when someone asked me why I looked so angry.
I was sitting at a Chuck E. Cheesy watching my daughter once, and some other parent said, "Buddy, you gotta take it easy."
Said daughter drew a picture of me once. I looked like I was scowling. Why, kid? That's the way you always look, Daddy.
So I got th
"Some people smile, for example" (Score:2)
That happens to me every time my face is half covered in blood and I pick up a rocket launcher.
This tech should be used to make a nice car HUD. HUD needs a doom guy's face in the middle of it, of course! The way he constantly snoops on the left and right would entice the driver to pay about his surroundings. Funny stuff like the pissed off face (has left and right looking variants) with hurt groan would happen when you have bumps on the road and mild collisions, and two nice screams are built-in that can be
Exterior mood signs (Score:2)
It would be cool if this technology could be coupled with exterior signs on the car. If I'm pissed, it would be great if the car could save me the trouble of giving the finger to the people around me, and just show a giant middle finger signal to the motorists around me.
What about sufferers of BRS? (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
A piece of strategically-placed electrical tape (Score:2)
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Happy face sticker.
Don't detect me bro! (Score:1)
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore" .
You Can't Stop Progress! (Score:1)
When you are too angry, your car will die, troopers will fast-rope onto it from their ornithopter, hit you with sick sticks and halo you while your fluids fly from every orifice... That is, if the AdWords for the latest hypnotic from Pfizer flashing across your windshield didn't calm you down first.
Reliability? (Score:2)
What is likely to be the accuracy of this system? Even a 99% accurate system would be fairly useless. Say you get 1 rager per day out of 100 000 drivers. Over 100 days (about 3 months), it will properly flag 99 people and miss one. But during the same period would flag 1000 people per day who aren't raging or dangerous.
It's the same every time someone says they can "detect" a rare event out of a completely random sample, whether it is mass screening for rare diseases or conditions, terrorists or road rage.
It's time for Sweet Tooth! (Score:2)
Seriously, with all the self absorbed drivers on the road these days all trying to get to the same place at the same time, I want the Sweet Tooth options on my next car. [wikia.com] Cut me off?!?! It's the flaming ice cream buddy!
With fewer officers on the highways and all the dumb ass maneuvers that people pull, it still seems incomprehensible that people don't get why "road rage" exists. I'm all for free choice but acting like an asshole on the roads means you'll probably get an asshole response. It's just human
The Idea is Literally Orwellian (Score:4)
-- Nineteen Eighty-Four
What to look for (Score:3)
Some people smile, for example.
This.
Many people suffering from road rage are bat-shit crazy. I've seen people trying to cause accidents. And I've nearly been run off the road a few times by them myself. Overwhelmingly, they are laughing or have a silly grin on their face. Perhaps because they thought they caused (or nearly caused) someone else some grief.
On the other hand, I recall an interesting incident from some years ago. I was in heavy traffic on an on ramp merging onto the freeway at a crawl. Traffic was (generally) alternating between ramp and freeway, every other car. I pulled in front of a dump truck. In my rear view mirror, I watched the guy behind me gun his SUV and try to make it between the dump truck and a jersey barrier. Not enough room, he got caught between the two. Then, he gunned his engine and squeezed through, tearing the hell out of his truck. So I'm watching him (behind me now) in my rear view mirror, grinning because he had just screwed the dump truck out of one position on the freeway. Sheet metal on what was (a few moments ago) a nice truck, hanging off the sides.
demand a jury trail and in the case push (Score:2)
demand a jury trail and in the case push any case of an system that can read some of being off start with voice recognition
Mood based dynamic car color (Score:2)
I suggest that the car's outside color changes according to the driver's mood.
Sleepy driver = night blue
...
Nervous driver = pulsing bright red
Relax driver = apple green with dark green waves
Raging driver = blood red with yellow dots
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Bullshit. My commuter has a 1.6. Hence my throttle is more or less binary.
Smoothness in driving is about getting the cars weight transferred onto your traction tires then getting through the corner with maximum speed. Not being afraid of your gas pedal.
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Like the time I had to jump on the brake with all my strength to avoid plowing right through the idiot who pulled out no more than 30 feet ahead of 10,000 pounds of truck and trailer going 25mph and with nowhere else to go??
That's when I learned what amazing brakes Ford puts on their heavier trucks. Stopped with room to spare. But with a "harshness governor" on my actions and only normal braking -- the idiot would have been dead.
[Incidentally, I'm fairly sure popping out in front of oncoming traffic without
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I already have a mask [typepad.com] picked out. Hides me from the facial recognition cameras. And other drivers give me lots of room as well.