Many people anthropomorphize their vehicles and give them cute or clever names -- even talk to them. And while some cars can already talk back – albeit in a pre-programmed and often robotic voice – the next step to making cars more human may come from mood-sensing technology Toyota is developing to help create safer vehicles.

Someday soon, we could own cars that will know if we’re too tired to drive and are about to fall asleep behind the wheel, or if we're angry and could therefore have a delayed reaction time. Like many advanced safety feature found in cars these days, this one builds on previous technology such as the Driver Attention Monitor feature found on some Lexus vehicles, which uses a camera to detect whether a driver is looking away from the road for too long.

The system would first give drivers some type of warning should they become distracted. The next evolution is to actually ascertain the emotional state of the driver -- even take control of the vehicle by actively braking or steering to avoid a collision.

The technology uses sensors that analyze 238 different points of data from a camera pointed at the driver’s face, then crunches the numbers to calculate the driver’s emotional state. Toyota claims that it will work even if a driver’s face is partially covered by sunglasses and facial hair, for example.

The system is being improved to even recognize what the driver is doing – operating the radio, fiddling with a phone, yelling at kids in the backseat – and then to issue a warning that reminds the driver to stay focused on the road. (We’d recommend shouting out: “Hang up and drive!”)

Exterior sensors are used in other advanced safety systems, such as the Pre-Collision System on some Lexus vehicles, but this goes beyond that, meaning an angry and distracted driver could be alerted of a potential hazard much earlier than a calm driver. The system could also detect the direction the driver is looking to warn of a hazard coming from the opposite direction.

Toyota’s lead developer of the technology, Jonas Ambeck, explained to a British media outlet that the system is still in an early development phase, though we could see some aspects of it in Toyota vehicles within the next six years.

A company called Tobii Technology has also shown a similar system for cars that detects a driver's facial expressions and can issue warnings to keep them from getting distracted or too drowsy.

[Source: Motor Authority]