Italy - Gazing upon stunning views can
make road trips memorable, but this experience has been unavailable to blind or
partially-sighted passengers.
Ford’s prototype smart car window
aims to change this by enabling blind or partially-sighted people to visualise
passing scenery through touch.
Feel The View is an amazing
technology that takes pictures that are turned into high-contrast monochrome
images. These are then reproduced on the glass using special LEDs.
By touching the image, different
shades of grey vibrate with a range of 255 intensities, allowing passengers to
touch the scene and rebuild in their mind the landscape in front of them.
An integrated vocal assistant helps
them to put the image into context.
Feel The View was developed by Ford
Italy and GTB Roma in collaboration with Aedo, an Italian company that
specialises in devices for the visually impaired.
“We developed a new language to
give people who cannot see a landscape, the chance to feel it,” says a Ford
spokesperson.
“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," he
said.
There is no word yet on when the concept might become a production reality.
Watch the video here: