Lexus AI Emotional Journey

Zlaten del Castillo

Lexus: AI Emotional Journey

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‘With the Lexus AI Emotional Journey, we explored how video and audio can induce an emotional response in the viewers and vice versa. Through technology, we built a language that facilitates an organic conversation between the content and the users.’

Zlaten del Castillo, Creative Director, UNIT9

The background

Lexus wanted to communicate that their new ES Self-Charging Hybrid model is designed to make you feel your best. So we created the world’s first emotion-driven video experience that responds to how you feel in real-time — inspired by the car that does the same.

Lexus AI Emotional Journey
Lexus AI Emotional Journey
Stressed / Surprised
Lexus AI Emotional Journey
Lexus AI Emotional Journey
Happy / Puzzled

The execution

The Lexus ES AI Emotional Journey is an experiential film experience dynamically generated based on your current emotional state. Using AI sentiment analysis, we crafted personalised videos in real-time that mirror the viewer’s feelings, with live data visualisation corresponding to changes. As well as responding to the relevant emotions, the AI also aims to drive the viewer towards feeling more relaxed by the end of the film.

We used MorphCast’s software development kit to read and translate facial expressions. The sophisticated technology detected faces and used a CNN (Deep Convolutional Neural Network) approach to analyse factors like emotion, age, gender, and head pose. Once it determined your current mood — stressed, surprised, relaxed, puzzled, or happy — it adjusted the colours, videos, sounds, and animated graphic elements accordingly to match.

Lexus AI Emotional Journey
Lexus AI Emotional Journey

The experience generated a shareable, unique video tailor-made to the viewer’s feelings throughout the journey — and a visual recap of how your emotions guided them. Once the video finished, users could navigate a timeline showing all the emotions that were recorded throughout the data visualisation.

Lexus AI Emotional Journey
Lexus AI Emotional Journey

The results

The experimental film experience is unlike anything that’s been done before. It was exciting to explore AI technology in new ways and really push the limits of what’s possible.

This was not technology for technology’s sake; it was an opportunity for Lexus to demonstrate its commitment to intelligent technology in an innovative, user-centric way, and to connect with their audience on a deeper, more personal level.

Lexus AI Emotional Journey
Lexus AI Emotional Journey
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