This Car Window From Ford Allows Blind Passengers to Feel the Outside View
Most of us often neglect the scenic beauty that our mother nature allows us to experience while driving. The picturesque mountains, breathtaking waterfalls, and the surrounding natural landscape are what makes our journey pleasurable while we are in motion.
But the visually impaired amongst us might never get a chance to be a part of such a mesmerizing experience. However, Ford is trying to change that.
The Italian division of Ford teamed up with GTB Rome and a local startup Aedo, to develop a technology that will give those unfortunate passengers a way to feel the scenic beauty of nature surrounding their car windows. The company thought of developing a smart car window that will generate a haptic visual language of the scenery.
The prototype “Feel the View” smart car window consists of a special device with an outside facing camera. The device attaches to the top of the passenger window and with just a press of a button, the system takes a picture of the current view.
The colorful picture is then converted into different shades of grey using LED lights, which generates varying levels of vibration. A total of 255 different intensities of vibration is generated to depict different shades of grey.
As the finger passes over different regions of the image, it will vibrate differently, providing a haptic feedback to the person using it.
The system also has a voice interface that uses the power of AI to identify the scene and provide audio description, to help the passengers get a context on what they are seeing.
This Car Window From Ford Allows Blind Passengers to Feel the Outside View
Most of us often neglect the scenic beauty that our mother nature allows us to experience while driving. The picturesque mountains, breathtaking waterfalls, and the surrounding natural landscape are what makes our journey pleasurable while we are in motion.
But the visually impaired amongst us might never get a chance to be a part of such a mesmerizing experience. However, Ford is trying to change that.
The Italian division of Ford teamed up with GTB Rome and a local startup Aedo, to develop a technology that will give those unfortunate passengers a way to feel the scenic beauty of nature surrounding their car windows. The company thought of developing a smart car window that will generate a haptic visual language of the scenery.
The prototype “Feel the View” smart car window consists of a special device with an outside facing camera. The device attaches to the top of the passenger window and with just a press of a button, the system takes a picture of the current view.
The colorful picture is then converted into different shades of grey using LED lights, which generates varying levels of vibration. A total of 255 different intensities of vibration is generated to depict different shades of grey.
As the finger passes over different regions of the image, it will vibrate differently, providing a haptic feedback to the person using it.
The system also has a voice interface that uses the power of AI to identify the scene and provide audio description, to help the passengers get a context on what they are seeing.
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