We’ve seen an invisible car in a James Bond movie – and more recently, the same trick on a promotional Mercedes-Benz, with video cameras projecting the surroundings onto the car to camouflage the vehicle, making it seem transparent.
But now the technology could be moving into the real world, with researchers in Japan using it to render the rear seat of a car ‘invisible’ for increased safety while reversing.
The team at Japan’s Keio University fitted the rear car seat with a material that incorporates tiny retroflective beads, that project the footage captured by a video camera at the rear of the vehicle – which is also fed to a small display screen attached to the driver’s seat.
When the driver is reversing, the rear seat appears to be transparent and with the video footage aimed to dovetail with the view through the rear window, offers a real-sized image of the area – and obstacles – behind the car.
The system is being showcased at the 2012 Digital Content Expo in Tokyo, and the rapidly plummeting cost of video technology could see it on the market in a few years.
“The driver will feel like he’s driving a glass car,” research team leader Masahiko Inami told a Japanese government science newsletter.
