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Ford could be about to help passengers in cars suffering from blindness or other visual impairment to 'see' some of the view.
Although, according to a Ford spokesperson: "For now, the technology is an early prototype, with no current plans for production" Ford has developed a special form of side glass that uses an image projected onto it which vibrates at very high frequency.
This so-called 'Feel The View' technology uses a side-view camera which records the scenery as seen through the window. That is converted to a very high-contrast monochrome image, which is projected, via special LEDs onto the side glass. Those LEDs then vibrate with a range of some 255 varying intensities, which when touched by the person with limited or no vision, can act as a sort of Braille for images, allowing them to trace and feel the outline of what the camera sees.
'Feel The View' was conceived and developed by Ford of Italy and GTB Roma, in collaboration with Aedo - an Italian start-up that specialises in devices for the visually impaired.
"We seek to make people's lives better and this was a fantastic opportunity to help blind passengers experience a great aspect of driving. The technology is advanced, but the concept is simple - and could turn mundane journeys into truly memorable ones," said Marco Alù Saffi, Ford of Italy.
Ford describes the tech as: "Allowing passengers to touch the scene and rebuild in their mind the landscape in front of them." The projection is invisible to the naked eye, so a sighted passenger will not have their view obscured, nor notice that there is anything different about the glass. The projection does come with a voice-assistant, which provides an audio description of what the camera sees.
The system is said to be of especial importance to autonomous vehicles, which one day could be sufficiently sophisticated and reliable to allow visually impaired passengers to use them unaided.
Watch the technology it in action: <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CDfqPMmNmmk" width="560" height="315"></iframe>