Distance: AR display for cars

2024: Product Announcement

In early July 2024, Distance Technologies demonstrated a new version of the automotive infotainment system that turns the car windshield into a three-dimensional AR display. The device uses an LCD panel that projects a transparent image onto a reflective windshield.

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The Verge

The novelty resembles the projected version of the 3D monitor, which can display a slightly different image for each eye, with security cameras helping to determine where the driver is looking and redraw the image accordingly. The projection forms a large screen on which you can display anything from the usual elements of automotive systems, such as speedometers, to detailed three-dimensional visualizations. Car manufacturers can integrate voice and gesture control as the device is connected to the Ultraleap hand motion tracker so the driver can take a phone call without getting off the road. A full-color projection can display video, that is, various information that was previously displayed on car screens (for example, an image from a rear view camera), can now be output directly to the driver's side of the windshield.

In addition, the developers plan to add AR night vision functions and other complex augmented reality elements to the device using lidar and other automotive sensors. Distance Technologies hopes the display can solve drivers' problems at night by realistically filling dark sections of the road with night vision scans. And in planes, pilots could see a detailed topographic three-dimensional map projected onto the cockpit glass.^[1]

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