Emotion Detection: A Door to Decode the Human Driver

Driving and interaction with a conditionally automated vehicle are a sequence of decision-making tasks for a driver. Previously, decision-making was considered as a cognitive process involving thinking, computation, and problem-solving. Recently, however, several theories support the importance of emotions in decision-making. Driver-vehicle interaction thus involves both emotional and cognitive decision-making processes. Emotional processing is a fast procedure that roughly estimates the negative outcome of the situation and prepares the body for the reaction.

The emotional state can be estimated from physiological data, behavioral and facial cues, and subjective ratings based on the psychological physiology. We are creating an emotion detection algorithm on a driving simulator to study drivers’ emotional state deeper during the driving and interaction with the vehicle to find out how the performance of a driver is affected by emotions and how an automated vehicle can improve the driver’s emotions to keep the journey safe and comfortable.