Computer Laboratory

Enhancing Driver Experiences through Vision Research

Marwa Mahmoud, Quentin Stafford-Fraser, Bihao Wang & Peter Robinson

Driving simulator
Driving simulator

The Endeavour project (Enhancing Driver Experiences through Vision Research) builds on our earlier work in affective computing, and especially on our work in face tracking, to investigate applications of computer vision in the automotive domain. The project is supported by Jaguar-Land-Rover in Warwick and also involves collaboration with other research groups in Cambridge. Research will involve exploring ways in which computer vision can be used to enhance the experience of driving a car.

Several themes are being explored, including:

  • observational studies of car drivers and navigators on the road to inform the design of assistive systems
  • tracking a driver's facial expressions in varying lighting conditions
  • recognising a driver's identity to customise the system
  • inferring a driver's mental state including cognitive load estimation
  • managing vehicle-initiated dialogue with a driver
  • monitoring the vehicle's environment
  • making inferences about other vehicles' intentions
  • detecting driver drowsiness and fatigue

The project started in January 2015 and will run for just over three years. Two post-doctoral research associates are currently employed on the project. Post-graduate research students and undergraduate summer interns would also be welcome to join the team.

Published results so far include:

  • "Towards a User-Centric In-Vehicle Navigational System", Olivia Wiles, Marwa Mahmoud, Peter Robinson, Eduardo Dias, Lee Skrypchuk, AutomotiveUI ’16
  • “Learning an Appearance-Based Gaze Estimator from One Million Synthesised Images”, E. Wood, T. Baltrusaitis, L-P. Morency, P. Robinson and A. Bulling , ETRA 2016
  • "Automatic detection of a driver’s complex mental states", Zhiyi Ma, Marwa Mahmoud, Peter Robinson, ICCSA 2017
  • “Automatic Detection of Salient Roadside Objects in the Wild”. Olivia Wiles, Marwa Mahmoud, Heng Yang, Peter Robinson, AutoUI 2016
  • "Intelligent Scheduling for in-car notifications", Jonathan Wright, Quentin Stafford-Fraser, Marwa Mahmoud, Peter Robinson, Eduardo Dias, Lee Skypchuk, RTSI 2017
  • "Multimodal Classification of Driver Glance". Daniel Baumann, Marwa Mahmoud and Peter Robinson. ACII 2017
  • "Human-like Guidance for Driving Navigation in an Urban Environment", Bihao Wang, Quentin Stafford-Fraser, Peter Robinson, Eduardo Dias, Lee Skrypchuk, ITSC2017

Other papers are in various stages of submission/publication.