Toshiba’s In-Car Facial Recognition Technology

One of the main causes of high accident rates on the road is careless driving and lack of focus or concentration on the road. Drivers especially those who are busy and loaded with a lot of work or stress tend to be preoccupied with their thoughts and focus less when driving. Tragedies can happen due to simple mistakes when the focus is not there.

To help drivers be more focused and to minimize road accidents, Toshiba’s innovation lab has successfully incorporated its facial recognition technology in motor vehicles. With the aid of a camera mounted above the steering wheel, driver’s face, motion, head movement, eye direction, etc will be detected and recorded by the cr. The car’s control system will thence alert the driver if the drivers take their eyes off the road for too long or if they are drowsy. This facility can somehow serve as an alarm to beep users and bring back users’ attention. Besides facial recognition to alert drivers of inattention, the device can also be used to control the car’s air-con or radio with just a glance of the eye. Users shouldn’t panic, for instance, if the driver kept blinking his eyes. Perhaps he just wanted to increase the radio volume and had no other intention.

The facial recognition technology for automotive is still in the preliminary stage and the electronic giant has yet to finalise plans to commercialize the system.