Automatic recognition of affective cues in the speech of car drivers to allow appropriate responses

Speech interaction with in-car systems is becoming more commonplace as systems improve. New cars are often equipped with speech recognition systems to dial phone numbers and or control the in-car environment, and with speech output to provide verbal directions from navigation systems. The paper explores the possibilities of richer speech interaction between driver and car with automatic recognition of the emotional state of the driver with appropriate responses from the car. Driver's emotions often influence driving performance that could be improved if the car actively responds to the emotional state of the driver. This paper focuses on an in-car emotion recognition system to recognise driver emotional state.