Toyota and Affective Media are developing a car that detects emotion in the driver's voice and responds accordingly. From CNN:
He said the car would be able to detect, for example, if the driver was stressed about running late and tell them the best possible route.
"It would give certain information that would help. If they were in a hurry, the car would work out the safer, faster route instead of, perhaps, a scenic route," he said.
"The in-car voice would talk to you in an attempt to improve the state of your mood."
Jones said the technology would not act as a counselor to solve complex issues, but it would be more like a "best friend" who could cheer you up at the end of a long day.
Other mood improvers could include playing soothing music.
It would also be able to detect whether the driver was drowsy by identifying signs such as quiet, flat speech, and could then trigger an alarm to rouse the driver.
Hey, I have an idea for a car that will improve my mood. It will shut the hell up and let me drive in peace. It won't be riddled with computer gadgets that distract me and cost a fortune to fix.
This is not the first application of the company's emotion recognition technology:
In call center environments, the company's technology is being applied to detect when callers become frustrated with automated voice recognition systems and determine when they should be put through to a real person.
"When people are talking to a machine, it's not 100 percent fool-proof. It can be an alienating experience for the caller."
There's a shocker. I don't doubt that the people developing this technology are well-intentioned, but in most if not all of these situations a simple, non-technological solution would work just as well. (For a phone system, in what sense is it an improvement to force the caller to become frustrated before receiving help, when you could just give them the option up-front to press a certain key at any time to speak to someone? i.e. Put the person in charge, not some elaborate and flaky software.)
Link: CNN.com - Clever car can improve your mood - Apr 7, 2005.
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