LONDON: A wide grin on a driver's face may seem proof enough someone is happy at the wheel, but it is not enough for one performance carmaker now using a suite of sensors to measure the experience.
Abarth is the tuning division of Italian manufacturer Fiat and it has turned to facial recognition technology to quantify the emotions felt by people when driving and being a passenger.
It's a novel use of a technology usually deployed to enhance car security. Carmakers Hyundai and Genenis have been using facial recognition to do away with keys. Like a smartphone, the car responds to faces registered with the biometric data in its computer.
Experts meanwhile say facial recognition could in future ease access management for vehicle fleets or be used to confirm the identity of the recipient of a delivery made by an autonomous vehicle.
The latest use of facial recognition in cars comprised of a series of driving challenges at Britain's Mallory Park racetrack and were conducted by scientist Dale Esliger from Loughborough University in Britain.
"Research within this remit is limited, however, I suspect it will be an area within the automotive industry that will continue to be explored, as manufacturers strive to improve the driving experiences of their cars," Esliger said.
Abarth said the prominent feeling of those on board the Abarth was happiness when both behind the wheel (31.8%) and as a passenger (35.4%), but noted that there were bursts of fear and shock (11.9%) when a professional racetrack driver was at the wheel.
Drivers were given Abarth F595, 595 Esseesse and 595 Competizione cars to handle challenges such as hot laps, precision driving tasks, and chase scenarios at the circuit.
The facial recognition technology was used alongside heart rate sensors - electrocardiogram (ECG) and photoplethysmography (PPG) — allowing Abarth to detect an array of emotions among individuals.
