Photos: 9 up-and-coming collectible cars

Photos: 9 up-and-coming collectible cars
To develop the system, Cornell's Ashutosh Saxena and his colleagues recorded video of 10 drivers and combined it with video looking forward from their cars as they drove. In all, almost 1,200 miles of city and highway driving over two months was recorded and analyzed.
Computers learned to correlate certain head and body movements with impending driving maneuvers. When tested later with a different set of drivers, the technology correctly predicted driving maneuvers 77.4% of the time. On average, a turn or lane change was anticipated more than 3.5 seconds before it happened.

GM cars will spy on your teen's driving

More refinement is still needed, according to the researchers. Sometimes, the face tracking system could be thrown off by passing shadows. Also, drivers interacting with passengers could confound the system. And some driving situations, like turning from a turn-only lane, don't always involve the same physical cues.
Eye-tracking capability and more sophisticated cameras could be added for greater precision. Sensors could be added to the steering wheel and pedals to pick up a driver's movements.
So far, this technology is in the early stages, but the researchers are in active discussions with automakers, Saxena said.