If you're on a sightseeing tour in a bus, you really don't want to be looking away from the passing attractions to Google them on your smartphone. The AR Interactive Vehicle Display is intended to help, by showing relevant information on the vehicle's window glass.
Set to debut next week at CES, the technology was developed by Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). It works as follows …
On each window of the bus, an eye-tracking camera is located above the window, and a transparent microLED touchscreen panel covers the entire inside surface of the window glass. As the passenger looks out the window, the system continuously assesses the direction of their gaze.
By factoring in GPS data to ascertain the vehicle's current speed and geographical location, it's possible to tell which specific attraction the person is presently viewing. The system uses this information to display a small photo of the attraction (on the microLED panel), which appears beside the passenger's view of the real thing.
If the person wants to know more about what they're looking at, they just tap that photo. Doing so causes information to appear in text boxes located around their view of the attraction, but not right overtop of it.
Needless to say, the technology could also be incorporated into the windows of trains, tour boats, gondolas or other sightseeing vehicles. In fact, ITRI has already utilized very similar technology in the glass of public aquariums which tell people about the fish they're presently viewing.
The AR Interactive Vehicle Display is demonstrated in the video below.
Source: ITRI
