Tracking facial features to make driving safer

For those familiar with its language, the face reflects much about an individual's identity and emotional state. Scientists are developing a tool that will be able to use facial information to make the cars of the future safer and more comfortable. Today's "intelligent" cars, equipped with multiple sensors and algorithms, can react to emergency situations, regulate speed, assist with parking and respond to voice commands. But they don't know who's at the wheel or how that driver is feeling. The face is a valuable source of this information, and a project initiated by EPFL's Transportation Center involving EPFL's Signal Processing 5 Laboratory (NTS5) and PSA Peugeot Citroën aims to mine it for use in the automobiles of the future. Face-related technologies have progressed rapidly in recent years, and are used in many areas. Facial recognition is used in real time to relay the exact position of an individual, and eye-tracking devices indicate the direction in which he or she is looking.