Renesas R-Car development kit enables cars to read and respond to driver emotional state
August 03, 2017
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The development kit includes cocoro SB?s emotion engine, which was developed to recognize emotional states such as confidence or uncertainty based on the speech of the driver.
Renesas Electronics Corporation has announced that it has developed a development kit for its R-Car that enables cars to read the driver's emotions and optimally respond to the driver’s needs based on their emotional state. The development kit includes cocoro SB’s emotion engine, which was developed to recognize emotional states such as confidence or uncertainty based on the speech of the driver. As this technology is linked to artificial intelligence (AI) based machine learning, it is possible for the car to learn from conversations with the driver, enabling it to transform into a car that can provide the best response to the driver.
Since it is possible for the car to understand the driver’s words and emotional state, it can provide a response that improves driver comfort and safety. For example, if the car can recognize the driver is experiencing an uneasy emotional state, even if he or she has verbally accepted the switch to hands free autonomous-driving mode, it is possible for the car to ask the driver “would you prefer to continue driving and not switch to autonomous-driving mode for now?" Or, the car might set vehicle speed according to how the driver is feeling while driving at night in autonomous-driving mode.
Renesas plans to release the development kit later this year. For more information, visit renesas.com.
