Thread: this is awesome

Originally Posted by kandyman676

Nice:-) yes, but think about it if it was an Open Source thing where people contributed their data to a central database (or databases). of course, I imagine the conversion is not something that is easy to do.

Why bother do this? If you want a true "3d" gps software, why not just make a HUD for your car that will display it over real life? It'd be cheaper in the long run because you wouldn't need huge databases, nor a top of the line system to run it. Its nice to half of you think all of this is "easy"

steve

Originally Posted by Skipjacks

I'd thought about something like this. I noticed the other day that if I lean way back (enough to get an angle on the windsheild) I see a crisp reflection of my monitor.

Back in the day I drove to Atlantic City. It was my first time going there and I didn't know the way. I printed out directions...backwards. I placed the backwards directions ont he dash in front of the steering wheel. As long as the sun was out the light reflected off the paper and the windshield and gave me a reflection of the directiosn (printed correctly) right in my field of vision, see through enough that I would safely see the road.

It was a makeshift HUD that gave me my directions without having to look down.

It occured to me that if you had an LCD screen show a reversed picture and put it in the same place (assuming the windsheild angle was right) you'd get the same effect.

It would involve alot of tweaking and brightness controll, but it could be a workable idea.

I don't know if any other makes/models offer this, but when i was looking into grand prix gtp's, they came with an option for HUD for speed/direction (NSEW). This is possible, but being a military type, what came to mind when I thought of this was a cockpit HUD (green lines/text on a flat screen in front of the windshield, as seen in video games).

If I did that though, I would obviously create a guidance system for great purpose. Only then would I mount some missiles hidden behind my headlights for people drving too slow for my likings. Can't forget the 30mm turrets for the pedestrians...

steve

I believe in the car year 2006 Infinity will be putting HUDs in their cars. Not for navigation, but for night driving. They will be showing an image of what is in front of you as seen through an IR camera.

IOW, if it is at night and you are driving down a dark road and a deer is just off to the side of the road, you wouldn't be able to see it until it jumped out in the road. With the HUD you'll see it (well provided that it isn't totally hidden - basically you will see at night the objects that you can see during the day). If someone is walking along the road wearing all black, you'll see them in plenty of time to avoid hitting them instead of dodging out of the way at the last minute.

Pretty cool. And I would think it would be quite easy to use a HUD to display arrows & other GPS information while driving as well. Won't help very much during the day though...

Brain21

I think its "A9" or something created by "Google" that is going to have pictures and sidewalks of businesses in which you can search through Google and locate a business and then see a picture of it. I read this through a tech. news story but we are pretty close to this happening. The idea of this kind of data is not completely impractical. I'd think some algorithm could be established to connect to that data and who better than something like A9 or Google to find out.

hmmm

now you have me thinking. I don't think a car pc HUD would be all that hard to accomplish. a simple one would involve just mounting the LCD screen on top of the dash so you could look at the reflection. Unfortunatly you don't have enough control over the brightness to make it appropriat for all light conditions that would be encountered. It may be a fun expiriment for someone who has a non perminantly mounted screen to lay it up on the dash and see how it goes however.

A better solution would be to use one of the new super small projectors like this one http://www.infocus.com/products/prod...prod=lp120&c=1 and project right up onto the glass. There are lots of things that you can to to control the brightness and they would probably be bright enough to make a readable reflection on a bright overcast day(worst case senario) I know that there are a couple of companies working on hand held LED based projectors which would be perfect for this application. Though I'll bet it's a year or two before you could have one.

As a side note it would be much easier to combat screen glare with this arangement than it is with the dash mounted dirrect view LCD we are all using. You would just have to make the dash around the location of the projection lens as flat black as possible and there wouldn't be anything along the lines of a glare reflection.

Been there done that. Built my first Car HUD in 84. Based on todays technology, would probably be best to use slightly tinted plexiglass square for focal point and small 2-4in LCD ala handheld organized. Single mirror optical setup eliminates need to reverse screen image. Focal length will be biggest drawback (don't remember the formulas anymore, but ~6in screen from 3in LCD requires fresnel lense and ~8inches in length. Personally, don't have that kind of real estate available anymore.