Australian researchers have just released a study presenting the results of an artificial intelligence, developed to detect drunk drivers… via the expression on their faces. An original way to combat drunk driving, one of the major sources of fatal accidents.
Our cars may be becoming safer, but drivers are often the cause of fatal accidents. One of the main causes: alcohol levels. A scourge that a group of Australian researchers are trying to combat with an original solution: artificial intelligence developed to determine a person’s blood alcohol level… by scanning their face.
Their results were published on the platform IEEE Xploreto look into the methods of the experiment and their results.
An original training
This artificial intelligence does not evolve in any way in its operation and must be “fed” with data. To do this, the five researchers selected 60 subjects and divided them into three groups: sober, slightly drunk and severely drunk… and made them drive – in a suitable environment, of course.
The idea: film these participants, focusing on their facial expressions, faces and looks, to train the AI to recognize and estimate the blood alcohol level of the drivers.
Encouraging results
Following this training, this artificial intelligence managed to “detect alcohol levels as subtle as 0.5 g per liter of blood (the legal limit in France, Editor’s note), with an accuracy of 75%”There is certainly still a step to be taken, but the results are already encouraging.
If this discovery reaches the market, it could be used both inside vehicles, where cameras are multiplying (particularly for autonomous driving), which could prevent the car from starting, and by law enforcement, offering them an additional means of detecting drivers under the influence of alcohol.
Let us remember that alcohol remains one of the major sources of road tragedies: in France, the Ministry of the Interior estimates that it was the cause of 23% of fatal accidents recorded in 2022.
