Yeah, no more parallel parking...Nissan this week showed off its Robot Agent at the Tokyo Motor Show. The robot, which sits in the dashboard of the company's Pivo 2 concept car, uses built-in cameras to read the driver's facial queues and pick up on whether he's getting tired or stressed out. The robot, speaking in English or Japanese, will nod, shake its head and even blink while it talks the driver out of a bad mood or suggests that he pull over and take a break.
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The robot is just one piece of the Pivo 2 concept automobile, which is an electric car that runs on plug-in, lithium-ion batteries. The car's wheels can turn 90 degrees so the driver can simply slide sideways into a parallel parking spot. That's not the car's only trick, though -- the Pivo 2's passenger cabin can turn 360 degrees. That means the driver would never have to back up. Instead, she simply could spin the cabin around and drive forward.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/...intsrc=hm_list
I have a feeling that my car telling me to calm down might prove to be counter-productive...The mood recognition technology is currently being trialed in real-world tests by Nissan. A camera mounted in front of the driver monitors eye movement to detect when the driver might be sleepy. This triggers the seat belt to tighten and this movement will hopefully snap the driver out of their drowsiness or prompt them to take a rest. A voice alert also sounds and a message pops up on the car's navigation screen.
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"We have data that happy drivers' accident rates are drastically lower than depressed ones, so this robot stays there to make sure the driver is happy always," said Masato Inoue, chief designer at Nissan's exploratory design group, in an interview at the Motor Show. "This guides the driver and sometimes cheers up the driver. For example, if the driver is irritated it might say 'Hey, you look somehow angry. Why? Please calm down.'"
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,13...e/article.html



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