Bosch Blocks Out The Sun
For safer driving.
According to the Department for Transport nearly 4000 people are injured in accidents caused by the blinding effects of the sun each year. These accidents are most common in the winter and spring when the sun sits low in the sky.
Your sun visor is a mixed blessing. It blocks out the sun, but also a huge chunk of your visual field. Such primitive tech… in this day and age? What with head-up displays, blindspot monitoring systems, electronic limited-slip differentials, magnetic adaptive suspension…
Bosch saw this discrepancy too. And so they’ve gone and built a very cool alternative called the Virtual Visor, which makes driving in blinding sunshine much safer. Here’s how it works:
It’s a transparent LCD Panel with honeycomb-shaped inserts. An artificial intelligence discerns the exact position of the drivers eyes, determines the position of the sun and automatically tints individual hexagons to block it. This updates in real time as the car and driver both change in position, blocking the sun with the fewest number of inserts, while the rest of the visor stays transparent, maximising the field of view.
The idea was conceived by Bosch engineer Jason Zink, in his spare time. The first prototype was actually put together using a discarded LCD screen that he, and two colleagues, found a rubbish bin. High-up execs liked it and gave them a budget to develop it into something that can be brought to market. Bosch will present it at CES 2020 in Las Vegas, where it will be named ‘Best of Innovation’ in CES 2020’s Innovation Awards.
Individual hexagons tint
Sun visor, days of old
Sun visor, the future
