Frustration in the face of the driver: A simulator study on facial muscle activity during frustrated driving

Abstract

Frustration in traffic is one of the causes of aggressive driving. Knowledge whether a driver is frustrated may be utilized by future advanced driver assistance systems to counteract this source of accidents. One possibility to achieve this is to automatically recognize the facial expression of the driver. However, only little is known about the facial expressions of frustrated drivers. Here, we report the results of a driving simulator study investigating the facial muscle activity that comes along with frustration. Twenty-eight participants were video-taped during frustrated and non-frustrated driving. Their facial muscle activity was manually coded according to the Facial Action Coding System. The participants showed significantly more facial muscle activity in the brow lowerer, dimpler, lip tightener, and lip pressor. Thus, recording facial muscle behavior potentially provides traffic researchers and assistance system developers with the possibility to recognize driving in frustration.