Affectiva and Nuance to offer assistance

US company Affectiva plans to develop a joint automotive assistant which detects driver distraction and drowsiness and voices recommendations such as navigating to a coffee shop. The solution is intended to align its dialogue to a motorist’s emotional state based on facial and verbal expressions. The integrated solution will combine the Affectiva Automotive AI solution with UK-based Nuance Communications’ Dragon Drive platform. Affectiva Automotive AI measures facial expressions and emotions such as ange
December 6, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
US company Affectiva plans to develop a joint automotive assistant which detects driver distraction and drowsiness and voices recommendations such as navigating to a coffee shop. The solution is intended to align its dialogue to a motorist’s emotional state based on facial and verbal expressions.


The integrated solution will combine the Affectiva Automotive AI solution with UK-based Nuance Communications’ Dragon Drive platform.

Affectiva Automotive AI measures facial expressions and emotions such as anger and surprise as well as verbal expressions in real time. It also displays icons which indicate drowsiness such as yawning, eye closure and blink rates and physical or mental distraction.Through the partnership, Dragon Drive will enable the in-car assistant to interact with passengers via emotional and cognitive state detection. It currently facilitates this correspondence through gesture, touch, gaze detection and voice recognition powered by natural language understanding.

Stefan Ortmanns, executive vice president and general manager, Nuance Automotive, says these additional modes of interaction will help its OEM partners develop automotive assistants which can ensure the safety and efficiency of connected and autonomous cars.

In the future, the automotive assistant may also be able to take control of semi-autonomous vehicles if the driver displays signs of physical or mental distraction.

Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision

Related Content

  • Crash course in workzone safety
    April 26, 2021
    A vehicle crashing through a workzone is an ever-present risk. As US National Work Zone Awareness Week approaches, Alan Dron asks what chance there is of improving the situation
    Read More
  • Ports are facing a digital sea-change
    March 24, 2021
    Next-generation cellular will revolutionise the ports and maritime sector. Its arrival is just in time, as the industry faces a variety of challenges which require new technological solutions
    Read More
  • Inrix acquires OpenCar to challenge Apple and Google in the car
    March 10, 2016
    Inrix has completed the acquisition of OpenCar, a US-based automotive software and services provider, in a purchase which enables Inrix to extend its cloud platform into the dashboard with a broad portfolio of third-party content and applications in a customisable automaker-controlled user experience. OpenCar, backed for the last five years by a strategic partnership with Mazda Motor Corporation, offers a white label, standards-based application development environment and framework, fully controlled by
    Read More
  • Increased automation is already improving road safety
    April 20, 2017
    Richard Cuerden considers how many of the technologies developed as part of a move toward autonomous vehicles are already being deployed as ADAS improve road safety. The drive to create autonomous vehicles has caused a re-evaluation of what is needed to safely navigate today’s roads and the development of systems that can replace the driver in many scenarios. However, many manufacturers are not waiting for ‘tomorrow’ and are already incorporating these systems in their new cars as Advanced Driver Assistanc
    Read More

Highlighted Content