The current crop of head-up display technology is hardly the stuff of science fiction, relying on the reflection from a precisely mounted screen to display data on the windshield.
Now General Motors of all companies has enlisted the support of several universities to develop a system which would use data gathered from an array of sensors and project images onto the entire surface of the windshield.
While the full windshield head-up display has not yet been identified for any production vehicles, the technology could end up in GM vehicles in the near-term future.
“Let’s say you’re driving in fog, we could use the vehicle’s infrared cameras to identify where the edge of the road is and the lasers could ‘paint’ the edge of the road onto the windshield so the driver knows where the edge of the road is,” says Thomas Seder, group lab manager-GM R&D.
To achieve this effect, the windshield has been coated with a series of transparent phosphors which emit visible light when excited by a light beam.
It would also combine existing technologies such as night vision with the head-up system to help drivers become more aware of their surroundings.
“This design is superior to traditional head down display-based night vision systems, which require a user to read information from a traditional display, create a mental model and imagine the threat’s precise location in space,” Seder said
In addition to this, the head-up system can be combined with automated sign reading technology to alert the driver if they are driving over the posted speed limit or if there’s impending construction or other potential problems ahead.
Very nice tech from GM. They seem to have beaten the Germans at the tech advancement game.
If the German Government owned BMW they could use tax payer dollars to assist in even more R&D too…
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BMW was trialling this in 2005 with the M5…
The Germans even have the whole windscreen being night vision capable.
I can see the capitalist pigs, GM, introducing annoying ads on your windscreen soon too.
Just give up and die GM…Please…
I am not a fan of this kind of thing and it will take a lot of convincing to bring me around. To me it is too distracting and will muddle the minds of some drivers causing them to lose concentration. Up here in Qld our brilliant government has just erected large roadside sign telling us to FOCUS! Correct me if I am mistaken but is it not ridiculous to distract a motorist by taking their eyes off the road to read a sign telling them to keep their eyes on the road? Is that not defeating the purpose of the campaign??? It is little wonder our road toll is climbing! Am I the only one who sees the irony in this?
Bit like the anti-fatigue road sign on the Hume just south of Albury telling us to ‘Open Your Eyes’
If my eyes are shut, how do I see the road sign?
will this work when the sun shines right in your face and you can’t see the road? i hate it when that happens
A heads up display of speed limit and school zones would be great for Australian roads. Means you can know your speed whilst keeping your eyes on the road.
No need to worry about obstacles whilst adhering to the Nazi strict speed limits.
At Least the Nazi’s had no speed limits…i.e Autobahn ;)
Especially when they raced through Poland
I can see its merits however it will take time to get used to coloured lines waving across your windscreen.
To be honest I dont know if I could trust it when I really had to. Also, If you’re on a foggy road with low visability you slow down until your speed is relevant to the conditions. If you can’t actually see where the road is but your windscreen is showing you, people would just drive the speed limit anyway….
Couldn’t do that. I trust my eyesight a hell of a lot more than I would a computer.
I agree, it could make a lot of people feel a lot more over-confident in dangerous conditions – when they should be justifiably over-cautious (like in the foggy conditions).
I love the idea!
But having studied computer vision, the hardest thing will be to determine where the viewer’s head and eyes will be. If you shift in your seat, or do a head-check (over-the-shoulder-blind-spot-check) then, when you turn back, the whole display could be out of alignment with your eyes and the road, which would be far worse that not having a HUD.
If they can solve this critical problem and make it both functional and safe, I’m all for it!
Of course, for the passengers, it would be completely disorientating…
The technology for head-tracking and gaze-point analysis is quite well understood now. I used some (prototype) “augmented reality” systems a few years back and it’s surprising how quickly you adjust to it and how normal it feels after just a few minutes.
I agree it would be disorienting for the passenger, – unless they use micro-lensing within the phosphor layer so that the projected augmentation was only visible from the driver’s position.
It looks pretty impressive. I cant wait to see it in a production car.
Hmmm, sounds like it would be really expensive to replace one of these windscreens.
Actually, the windscreens would be fairly inexpensive. The phosphor coating is very cheap to apply and a micro-lensing laminate layer would be only marginally more expensive than a normal laminate layer. I’d think we’re talking no more than $50 total (additional cost). The real cost is in the laser projection components, – but even they would reduce significantly in price with volume manufacture.
nah,they would make it expensive to replace. The 1994 nissan SSS bluebird had a HUD on the windscreen $1200 to replace
Speedometer is fine… maybe that fog counter measure where a line is drawn on the windshield… thats fine too.
But seriously, this will get over killed and be used to display other useless things sooner than later.
For GM I’d be more concerned with improving quality and reliability rather than trying to take on the big boys with expensive, sophisticated stuff.
Whats wrong with GM reliability. I’ve had commodores for twenty years and not one has ever had anything more serious than a flat tire. Not a single one. Its the quality department in which GM has been lacking, but judging from the Astra, Insignia, Cruze and several Buicks, they are rapidly fixing this.
I have heard a rumour from a friend in the auto industry that they will in the future use this tech along with other camera’s and sensors to allow a car to completely drive itself. They told me that the camera would read the projection of the lines and translate it into steering wheel movement. The sensors would work in the same way active cruise control does to regulate speed and stop the car. Lets hope someone comes out with this type of tech soon, as this seems to be the only way to reduce the road toll. By giving the job of driving to a machine that was designed for that sole purpose(unlike human beings), and that does not reply or disobey instructions(only Toyotas do that nowadays), because it seems as if its up to the auto giant’s to do this and not our reluctant governments.