Automobiles of the future may communicate with body language

This technology is being used to enhance the communication abilities of vehicles so that drivers can send more complex signals to the other drivers around them on the road. Today, you can only honk your horn, or tap your brake lights, flash your headlights or use your turn signals, and these signals are rather one-dimensional. It's difficult to show a wide range of emotional expression, such as thanking another driver for letting you enter the lane, or expressing disapproval at another driver who inappropriately cuts in front of you.

The channels for this communication are being selected due to the human affinity for naturally understanding facial expressions and body language. Humans are hard-wired to understand certain facial expressions, and even when machines mimic those facial expressions, the intent or emotion is still communicated quite clearly to human observers. In other words, an expression or display of body language doesn't have to come from another human being in order to be meaningful to the observer. So, a car can appear angry just as a robot can display emotions.

I believe this technology holds the promise for being far more than just entertainment, by the way. I think this could help drivers get along better on the roads and share their judgments about each other's driving habits in a way that makes driving less frustrating, less stressful, and less troublesome for everyone involved. Because today, it's too easy to jump to strong negative conclusions about someone honking their horn or flashing their headlights, when in fact they may mean something far less intimidating. With the appropriate technology, they will finally be able to display those other emotions and get the point across that they intended. With this vehicle technology, there's simply less opportunity for drivers to misinterpret each others' intentions.

• A drawing of a car with facial expressions.
• Inventors said they wanted drivers to have more than a horn and headlights to signal other drivers.
• Four inventors working for Toyota in Japan have won a patent for a car that they say can help drivers communicate better by glaring angrily at another car cutting through traffic as well as appear to cry, laugh, wink, or just look around.
• The inventors explain in the patent that they want drivers to have more than a one-note horn and on-off headlights to signal other drivers.
• In it they describe a car with an antenna that wags, an adjustable body height, headlights that vary in intensity, and hood slits and ornamentation designed to look like eyebrows, eyelids and tears, all of which could glow with colored lights to create moods and physical features.
• "Such emotive, organic vehicles could also lead occupants to have great affinity for their vehicles, and make the driving experience more comfortable," the inventors add.
• The car comes with a computer and software system that detects road and vehicle conditions like steering angle, braking or speed.
• When a sufficient number of points are accumulated to indicate anger, the computer's software will trigger a reaction in the car's appearance.
• It shows categories that correlate driver reaction, road or car condition to color and position of features like the "eyebrow," the antenna, the headlights and the vehicle height.
• For anger, the hood lighting color glows red while the eyebrow lights up and the headlights, antenna and height are in standard position.