Driver and passenger activity mapping

Aim and goal

The aim of the DRAMA project is to enable enhanced interaction between a vehicle and persons inside the vehicle by providing information about body posture, facial expression and activity for the persons in the vehicle.

With more information about its driver and passengers, a vehicle can adapt its behaviour and character with to increase safety and comfort.

A purpose of the project is to generate and to spread knowledge that may be used in future solutions and products.

The goal is to make a prototype for use in vehicles capable of automatically identifying persons’ body postures, facial expressions and activities in real time.

Challenge

The project will produce tools, methods and algorithms needed for real-time, automatic identification of body postures, facial expressions and activities from images of persons from multiple cameras in a vehicle. Also, for the implementation, the limited computational resources available in a vehicle will have to be considered.

Solution

The DRAMA project will implement a data acquisition system for multiple cameras mounted in the cabin of a vehicle. This system will also perform calculations of the algorithms produced in the project. These algorithms will, to a high degree, be based on machine learning.

Effect

The DRAMA project will:

• enable for improved safety and comfort in vehicles through enhanced interaction between persons in a vehicle and the vehicle itself
• enable innovation and new products based on the knowledge generated by this project
• give new competence in image processing, in machine learning and in interaction between persons in a vehicle and the vehicle itself, and in identification of intentions and actions
• contribute to higher education by way of thesis projects