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What if you’re driving down a dark road in the middle of the night and you have no idea where you are? Navigating twists and turns would suck. But what if your car could display all the relevant info in front of your eyes?
According to Gizmag, True3D is a technology that wants to put your GPS navigation data right in front of your face, taking even more of the guesswork out of driving in unknown areas. But this isn’t just a matter of putting a GPS map in front of your face. This information is blended into the landscape you’re driving through. The road guide would have 3D depth, showing you exactly where to drive. Point of interest would have markers above them. And there could even be virtual road signs to go along with the stanadard navigation far (street maps, for example).
A working prototype for True3D exists as a proof-of-concept, but its California-based creators, Making Virtual Solid, are currently working on a way to bring it to market after winning the European Satellite Navigation Competition in Munich, Germany. I need this in my life. [Making Virtual Solid via Gizmag]
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I really like this idea – if it works for fighter pilots, why not for the rest of us? (providing they don’t allow flashing “look at me” commercial adverts I think it could work.
For it to be universal though, they will need to crack the daytime visibility issue. Perhaps some smart algorithms could sense the light falling on the windscreen and display a contrast image e.g. light against the dark at night, dark against the light if the sun was shining straight in – it could actually be a safety guide when driving directly into the sun, having the road displayed as a dark line against a ‘white-out’ through the windscreen view. It would mean tying it in with some of the other emergent tech that’s starting to appear on driver-less cars – could be an interim technology?
I like this….expect to see as an optional extra in Mercedes, BMW and Lexus within 5 years!
This looks amazing. However, who’s to bet it’ll cause accidents from idiots not concentrating on their real surroundings…
Solution: employ an active radar system of some sort that will detect objects that are likely to stray into your path. Could be used to track roadside objects as well as cars infront of you, giving distance and even estimated speed markers on the HUD. Couple that to an intelligent braking system and bingo… the car won’t be accident proof, but at least less prone to driver error.
I hope they take off all the text that tells you what everything is. That would just get in thew way!
Looks like the text is just explanatory as it’s a PoC.
Nice implementation, looks like the next logical step for GPS, the big challenge will be making it an after market option. It’s all well and good bunging it in high-end luxmobiles but I need this in my 10 year old Golf
As long as they don’t sell advertising so that virtual billboards appear as well, probably obscuring the turn you are trying to take.
How about something like this:
“Lots of hot single girls in this area are dying too meet you! Subscribe to hotdate.com now and get 3 months for free!”
But why don’t we have this in our cars already?!
It needs to be like this – and we need thermal cameras for ‘fog mode’ too. Then we can get rid of fog lights – and those dicks who have them on when it isn’t foggy will have to be ‘un-cool’
[KirkVoice] TOO. MUCH. INFORMATION. Brain. Can’t. Cope. [/KirkVoice]
Clever tech and all, but if I was driving, cycling or crossing in front of that car then I’d rather the driver saw me than a Starbucks sign!
Very cool. I thought of that in the past and it really seemed to me that someone with the knowledge and resources would come up with a viable product in a near future. But I really think it must be done very carefully, very minimalist and please NO ADVERTISING!!!