Affectiva Automotive AI: Anger Metrics. Credit: Business Wire.

Affectiva has introduced Affectiva Automotive AI, a multi-modal in-cabin artificial intelligence (AI) sensing solution designed to help increase road safety.

The technology monitors and analyses a vehicle’s driver and passengers in real-time, identifying emotional and cognitive states from their facial features and voice patterns.

Designed for use in semi-autonomous vehicles, Affectiva Automotive AI is said to be able to identify mental and physical distractions such as drowsiness.

“We are now training on large amounts of naturalistic driver and passenger data that Affectiva has collected.”

The AI also assesses if the driver could assume control of the vehicle in an emergency and is able to communicate with a vehicle’s safety systems.

Affectiva CEO and co-founder Dr Rana el Kaliouby said: “We have built industry-leading Emotion AI, using our database of more than six million faces analysed in 87 countries.

“We are now training on large amounts of naturalistic driver and passenger data that Affectiva has collected, to ensure our models perform accurately in real-world automotive environments.”

The company’s technology is claimed to have a deep understanding of the emotional and cognitive states of people and will help save lives. Collected data can also be used by original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and Tier 1 suppliers to develop advanced driver monitoring systems (DMS).

Affectiva’s solution is expected to enable developers to enhance these technologies for use in robo-taxis and other highly automated vehicles.