New Windshield 3-D Navigation System

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The actual tech behind this “virtual cable” displayed on the windshield of your car is kinda cool. The thought of driving somewhere with a person that needs something like this is scary as hell.

Our invention, called Virtual Cable™ is a unique display for a car navigation system. The driver sees the Virtual Cable™ image through the windshield. It appears as if suspended over the road, similar to a trolley cable. The image is in true 3D and appears to be a natural part of the landscape. The driver uses only peripheral vision to follow the Virtual Cable™.
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This gives a whole new meaning to "fly by wire".

Too bad people will be busy watching it. It's intended to be used with peripheral vision, which is true, because the driver will be busy paying thier main attention to thier:

Cell phone

PDA

DVD movie player

Book

Newspaper

Make Up

Ect..

Ect..
 
I love this, its basically a better display system for a GPS. Trust me, if you ever get a job where you have to drive as part of the job, this would be great.

I routinely am driving to areas/streeets I am not familiar with and sometimes the GPS, even the high end Garmin I use, simply does not show things well and next thing you know you missed a turn and are stuck on a detour.

I would prefer a broader band with periodic arrows though.

Be awhile ebfore this becomes mainstream tech, looks great to me tho.
 
Personally, I can drive and follow road signs no problem. There have been times where finding the road sign has been difficult to see (especially out in the middle of no-where where there's no street lights). Having this just makes it easier. Very cool idea... what I think will be scary is how much it'll cost.
 
Gambit said:
Personally, I can drive and follow road signs no problem. There have been times where finding the road sign has been difficult to see (especially out in the middle of no-where where there's no street lights). Having this just makes it easier. Very cool idea... what I think will be scary is how much it'll cost.
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That only works if you know the geography well. If you have to drive in an unknown area, a road sign might point out to 'redneckville' or 'nutbush city' but you need to find 'Turner street' which comes half way to nutbush city. Unless you know that you're pretty much stumped without consulting a map or having a GPS.

And GPS is slightly more convenient than reading a map on the road.
 
This is awesome. The best part is that maybe it's hackable so the slow feck in front of you can be shown to drive that little red cable off a bridge. :D
 
Gambit said:
Personally, I can drive and follow road signs no problem. There have been times where finding the road sign has been difficult to see (especially out in the middle of no-where where there's no street lights). Having this just makes it easier. Very cool idea... what I think will be scary is how much it'll cost.
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Yeah, but like everything the costs will go down. A good GPS was well over $1000 when they came out, right? Now you can get a good one for a little over $100 if you get a deal.

I wonder what type of technology they are using to put the line on the windshield. Hopefully it isn't too costly - it would suck if some punk lid thew a rock at your windshield and it broke the whole damn thing.
 
As inaccurate as my GPS is at times (showing me off-roading through the desert next to the freeway at 80mph), I wonder how many accidents this system will cause by someone following the string right off the road, especially in bad weather conditions.

(and the demo doesn't load on my PC, so I can't see it in action.)
 
az_max said:
As inaccurate as my GPS is at times (showing me off-roading through the desert next to the freeway at 80mph), I wonder how many accidents this system will cause by someone following the string right off the road, especially in bad weather conditions.
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I agree. I can picture a lot a people following this thing blindly right into on-coming traffic or onto a sidewalk. I think a better solution would be artificial signs hovering above the road or the like.
 
Install military grade GPS and accuracy problems are gone, simple..

On regular GPS that thing is not very likely to follow the road all the time as people mentioned.
 
I think this would be excellent for those who like to haul ass, or not even drive fast at all. They could see their exit or turn ahead of time and not have to make last second maneuvers. It's also better than taking your eyes off the road and looking at a tiny GPS screen. It's only the bad drivers that would watch JUST the red wire...but then again where I live (nyc) there are LOTS of them :eek:
 
DarkenReaper57 said:
Yeah, but like everything the costs will go down. A good GPS was well over $1000 when they came out, right? Now you can get a good one for a little over $100 if you get a deal.

I wonder what type of technology they are using to put the line on the windshield. Hopefully it isn't too costly - it would suck if some punk lid thew a rock at your windshield and it broke the whole damn thing.
Click to expand...

If you look on the site it shows you. It is just a projector that is intergrated into the dash and projects the line onto the windshild. So a broken windshild wouldn't effect the actual device, at worse your line might be distorted some or not there if the windshild is completely destroyed.
 
Has anyone noticed the cable in the demo seems to magically know which trees are in front of the path and which are behind, on top of simply knowing where the trees are in the first place. The actual product would have no way of knowing this and would always render a cable in the foreground, which would conflict with other spatial cues. Maybe its something that can be gotten used to, but it would at least start out annoying.
 
seems like some of you guys haven't used a GPS device recently. I have a new TomTom system and I have yet to make mistakes with it. The first time I used it was when I went to DisneyWorld with my family last July and just for fun, I decided to drive out in the country purely to try and confuse the TomTom, but try as I might, it was precise everywhere I go.

If you purchase GPS device that relies on software map, it's going to be outdated because of the time it takes for software to be approved and released, and the amount of time since you last updated your GPS device.

If you get a real one that uses GPS satellites, it's going to be as precise as can be - at least in developed countries like the United States. All new roads are registered with the government and official cartographers, so you will never miss new roads.

My TomTom is a touchscreen device and is very easy to use, but regardless, it's tiny. A holographic window projector would be a vast improvement.

I don't rely on it for everyday use. My TomTom sits in my glove box unless I need to make long trips, especially places I've never been. Who should I trust? Paper maps that I bought several years ago, or satellite GPS? I think I'll go with GPS, thank you.

Anyways, those of you who don't trust GPS devices from past experience, I say to you give it another go. It's quite very reliable right now.
 
Steve said:
The actual tech behind this “virtual cable” displayed on the windshield of your car is kinda cool. The thought of driving somewhere with a person that needs something like this is scary as hell.
Click to expand...

Reminds me of Everquest's find npc feature. It's not a read line and frankly, it looks a bit cooler, but then that's only on my monitor, and this is on the windshield.....and it's actually useful for real life.

Personally, I think it'll make driving safer. I can't count the number of times I'm having to fumble for some mapquest printout to figure out where the next turn is. And if I counted on my hands and toes and then cloned my self 10 times, I still couldn't count up the number of times that I've needed to turn on <insert street name> and there was no street sign at that street....and sadly that's often at major intersections.

Or how about the New Orleans area, where streets often end at a canal only to pick up a bock or 2 later.

I wish all cars had it.
 
the problem is there are unfortunately many many stupid assholes with a drivers license.. so yes, there will most definitely be people who blindly follow the virtual cable while ignoring exactly where they are going, be it into another vehicle, into a house or building, into a group of pedestrians.. i agree with what one guy said about virtual signs instead
 
The last video is clearly identical to the first, with a simple gradient mask to "simulate" night. I was skeptical before, but now I'm really skeptical.
 
I think this is pretty freaking awesome, better than having to look over at a map display on a screen taking your view away from the road IMO. This makes it real easy to find places that may be hard to find. I like it.
 
Azhar said:
seems like some of you guys haven't used a GPS device recently. I have a new TomTom system and I have yet to make mistakes with it. The first time I used it was when I went to DisneyWorld with my family last July and just for fun, I decided to drive out in the country purely to try and confuse the TomTom, but try as I might, it was precise everywhere I go.
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OTOH I've never seen a GPS that shows the streets in my neighborhood. Everyone that comes to my house requires custom directions and their GPS (if they have it) shows them in a field. Google and MapQuest have it wrong too so I dunno what's up with that. Our hood is 3-4 years old and not in the middle of nowhere.
 
And of course I forgot to mention, this gadget sounds like a lot of fun. I don't leave my comfort zone a lot but I do like gadgets and this is a decent idea. I wonder if it can be hacked to show games on a windshield without distortion. That would be like those triple LCD monitors-MS flight simulator anyone? Rig up the steering wheel and pedals in your car as controls. :D
 
Cool but I thing turn by turn voice directions are better as they put the focus on the driver looking for the turn instead of watching a visual queue that could be over 20m off target.
 
Simulation Videos
Below are video simulations demonstrating the Virtual Cable™. These videos are limited by the 2 dimensionality of your computer screen. Nothing we can show on a flat screen can prepare you for the impressive way the Virtual Cable™ looks within the real landscape.

NOTE The Virtual Cable™ image has been drawn manually and it shows a certain amount of wobble. The real Virtual Cable™ always appears stable within the landscape.
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On their website they say that the videos are simulated.
 
Well the web-site sucks ass ... every link gives you an error on the page. Maybe they should try to get that fixed first before I'd even look at their rinky-dink product. Fucken the definition of MickeyMouse, is this company.
 
-MikeHawk- said:
Well the web-site sucks ass ... every link gives you an error on the page. Maybe they should try to get that fixed first before I'd even look at their rinky-dink product. Fucken the definition of MickeyMouse, is this company.
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