Yabbut...
I don't think the "illegal" part is tripping the light so much as having a device that
could trip the light, which is an IR emitter. At least that's what I walked away from that hack article from.
Picture a $7.00/hr municpal employee assigned the task of flipping through red light camera shots looking for this bright white IR signature coming from something other than the headlamps. "The snap shot of the camera
could have been taken during that 1/10th of a second, let's put his license plate number on the "send ticket" pile and see what happens."
Then again, a carPC in general in might raise alarm from a cop on the side of the road who sees the monitor glow and thinks yer watching movies while driving or something.
I prefer avoiding a problem when I can rather than dealing with one. Chances are you could argue the point in court and maybe even win, but it's just a hassle.
Gonna cruise that surplusshed site. But what I think would really help me understand the concept of the actual HUD is when I get all the parts so I can bench test it with an image. Right now, it's basically a mirror in a plastic box.
I am just thinking out loud, but I'm pretty sure the bent mirror does more than magnify the image. A few ray traces lead me to believe it also wraps the image, which would offset the optical distortion on the windshield. A simple demonstration would be to face your palms together and curl your fingers. That's kinda what the mirror looks like in realtionship to the inside of the windshield.