Texas Instruments
The topic of driver distraction is one that we’ve covered a lot here at Ars. Whether due to the proliferation of smartphones, touchscreen infotainment systems that are now adapted to most new cars or people simply not paying attention, the National Road Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 400,000 people were injured and 2,841 killed as a result. of drivers distracted in 2018.
Researchers are divided as to whether the real problem is cognitive overload or drivers simply don’t have their eyes on the road ahead, with some automakers and technology companies trying to solve the second problem through the use of driver monitoring systems look tracking. But a new technology demonstrated by Texas Instruments at this year’s (virtual) CES may mean that there is much less reason for drivers to take their eyes off the road ahead.
Specifically, the technology uses a small projector embedded in the car dashboard and a layer of holographic film laminated inside the glass sandwich that forms a windshield to project a hologram onto the plane of the car’s dashboard and navigate directly in the driver’s line by sight.
Heads-up monitors have been available in cars (both high and low cost) for many years, and at CES in 2019, Ars saw a demonstration of a full-windshield augmented reality HUD. However, TI’s new system, which it is calling the holographic in-plane optical element (IP HOE) display, is subtly different from today’s HUD technology. On the one hand, as the name suggests, the screen is projected on the plane of the windshield – in contrast, the image of a HUD appears to float in space several meters in front of the vehicle.
TI says the main advantage of the IP HOE monitor is that it requires much less space than the large mirrors required by a traditional HUD. TI states that the HOE IP screen can be supported using a small projector of less than 1L (0.03 cubic feet) in volume, compared to 20L (0.7 cubic feet) or more for a similar size screen using the HUD technology.
Plus, you can have a lot more freedom when it comes to fitting the IP HOE projector to a car dashboard. Since images can be projected off-axis, the projector does not need to be mounted directly between the driver and the windshield. TI says this makes it a good choice for vehicles such as sports cars, which have limited panel space and steep windshields, as well as heavy commercial trucks, which have almost vertical windshields, neither of which makes them good candidates for current HUD technology.
Unlike the full windshield AR HUD I saw in 2019, the HOE IP monitor can use RGB LEDs instead of lasers for lighting, which means it is cheaper, more reliable and does not require active cooling. The screen is even compatible with drivers wearing polarized sunglasses.
Note that the IP HOE display is not an augmented reality screen like the one Mercedes-Benz is debuting in its latest S-Class sedan. As you can see in the video embedded above, it shows the same information as a main instrument display, but there is no identification and signaling of real-time objects.
It is not entirely perfect, however. On the one hand, the distance from the image to the IP HOE screen is short, from the driver’s eyes to the windshield; a HUD typically has an image distance between 7.5 and 20 feet (2.2-6.1 m). But the IP HOE has an image distance similar to the groups of main instruments installed in the cars we all drive today, and since it is projecting the screen on the same plane as the road ahead, there should be much less accommodation time for the driver , which means faster reaction time to any incidents ahead.