
Mercedes uses LEDs and a Camera to make "invisible car" for marketing - got2surf
http://youtu.be/ZIGzpi9lCck
======
encoderer
Mercedes really has a fantastic heritage of "hacking" the driving experience.

While other manufacturers have their own versions of modern safety tech, I've
never seen it used as thoroughly across the lineup of cars as I do with
Mercedes.

I bought a Mercedes for only one specific reason: It's very credibly the
safest car I can put my family in that is also fun to drive. The safety tech
on a commonly equipped Mercedes today is what you'll see on all cars in 5-10
years. Things like active blind spot assist -- If there's a car in my
blindspot and I try to change lanes into it, the car will use the brakes on
the leading side of the car to nudge me back into my lane. And active lane
keeping assist -- it applies that same tech to prevent me going left of center
if it thinks I'm drifting and not doing it intentionally. Attention assist --
it tracks my driving style and engagement and alerts me if I'm drifting off.
Not to mention, just a lot of smart tech: Apply the brakes ever so slightly
when it's raining to keep them dry. Seatbelt pretensioner's. And structural
things -- an extra firewall in the engine compartment. More, stronger clasps
on the hood. Many of these features are found on other makes. But as a
package, combined with a fantastic 7 speed automatic and turbo charged 8cl
engine, Mercedes sells a wonderful car.

Please excuse me for being such a fanboy!!!

~~~
ars
What does "fun to drive" mean? I've heard it many times, but I've never been
able to understand it, and I've driven a variety of cars.

~~~
code_pockets
It's really a simple term used to describe a combination of factors that
create the sense of pleasure on certain individuals. Though it is highly
subjective, and varies from person to person.

Some people describe a car to be fun to drive when the performance of the
vehicle matches their preferences. That is why you have a segment that enjoys
Ford Mustangs for their straight-line acceleration (and calls them fun to
drive), and you also have another segment that enjoys the Mazda Miata for its
sport-tuned suspension, short tranmission gearing (which allows the engine to
stay on the powerband with less effort), and low weight (and also calls them
fun to drive).

There are a thousand different ways that a car can be fun to drive. Some are
not even related in any way to the actual car, but to the sentimental value
that the owner puts on the vehicle.

The most fun to drive car I've ever had was a sub-compact that barely had
eighty-eight horsepower. Yet it did not consume much fuel. Such attibute
pushed me to find how far I could go before needing to refuel. That alone made
the car fun to drive.

The Mercedes owner above values the rich set of features that his vehicle has.
He seems to enjoy knowing that his vehicle is highly equipped to whithstand
and accident, and is even able to reduce the chances of one actually happen.
Plus I bet he loves driving past store windows, and see himself driving such a
fine automobile. I know I would. =)

~~~
olalonde
> Though it is highly objective, and varies from person to person.

I think you meant subjective ;)

~~~
code_pockets
Yes, yes I do.

The more languages one speaks, the less one speaks one.

:D

------
geoffschmidt
Of course, it doesn't actually look invisible unless you're standing in
exactly the right place. That is why the stationary shots at the beginning of
the video look so much more "invisible" than the moving shots later in the
video. If you pause on those later shots, you'll see that there are big
discontinuities around the boundary of the car.

Thought experiment: imagine the car as a sheet of glass. Think of yourself
standing at position A and looking at a point X on the glass. You see a
position A' behind the glass. Now imagine moving to a position B and looking
at the same point X on the glass. You see a different position B'. The LEDs
don't know if you are at position A or B, so they can't know whether to show
the light from A' or B'.

~~~
X-Istence
Do you really have to be such an extreme kill joy? I think anyone that watched
the video would see the exact same thing we both saw, yes, it isn't perfect,
yes if you aren't looked straight on you won't see it, but goddamnit if it
isn't an awesome effect that is going to get people talking and will generate
buzz for Mercedes and overall is an absolutely awesome way to advertise that
your car looks "invisible" to the world it is driven in.

~~~
Drbble
But parent is also right metaphorically. Once the car starts moving, consuming
energy and filling traffic, it is not longer invisible to the world.

------
rochoa
Top Gear guys did something similar in its Top Gear at the Movies special a
few months ago: <http://youtu.be/cZBqq-UaK98?t=34s>

------
randlet
Only tangentially related, but it really bugs me how these vehicles are being
marketed as "zero-emissions" and being "invisible to the environment". Clearly
the energy is being generated, and hence negatively impacting the environment,
somewhere. It's just outright dishonest.

~~~
ars
It uses hydrogen, which is pretty hard to make and transport. If they actually
wanted to be environmentally friendly (instead of just having the PR) they
would use natural gas which already has a good transportation network.

Hydrogen is better PR since _at the car_ there are no emissions. So which to
choose? Better PR or better for the environment?

~~~
X-Istence
Natural gas is already really big in Europe, with a lot of cars driving on
natural gas, so I am not so sure that adding Hydrogen to the mix would be that
much more expensive.

~~~
ars
Hydrogen would definitely be much more expensive. Hydrogen leaks, a LOT, it's
really hard to contain and ship.

You would need a built a whole new infrastructure, and existing one for
natural gas would not work.

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david_shaw
If a car manufacturer can create this technology as a marketing stunt, I'd be
really interested to understand the (existing) military applications of
"active cloaking."

It doesn't really make things completely invisible, but it sure does seem like
excellent camouflage.

~~~
sanswork
It only works if you're staring right at it though. Once you change the angle
it looks very wrong.

~~~
archivator
I wonder if you could use multi-faceted light emitters, capable of showing a
different colour on each face. It wouldn't solve the issue completely but
would definitely alleviate it!

~~~
logic
I was actually just thinking about this. We're _almost_ at the point now where
you could reasonably package multiple LEDs into a multi-surface package, and
do so relatively cost-effectively.

The other side (pun intended) of this problem, though, is that you'd also want
to capture imagery from as many perspectives as you planned on reproducing,
which is a slightly more involved packaging issue. ;)

------
dazbradbury
Looks like a primitive version of the invisibility cloak from several years
back [1].

Am sure someone made a more advanced version of this after the James Bond film
came out though. Lots of tiny cameras interleaved with led's covering the
surface of the vehicle...

[1] <http://science.howstuffworks.com/invisibility-cloak-news.htm>

~~~
verran
Funny thing, the tech used by Microsoft Surface utilises (pixel sense
[http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-
Surface-2-0-PixelSe...](http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-
Surface-2-0-PixelSense-Pixels-that-See-the-User-Interaction-209322.shtml)) the
screen pixels as the cameras to capture the environmental data. Now, if you
could combine that with the latest 3D tech they are pushing these days, the
glasses free type, you could make a directional cloaking device with very
little of the problems seen in the video.

~~~
Ralith
The only glasses-free 3D tech I know of works by restricting the viewing angle
of each of the two sets of pixels to such a small area that each eye gets a
different set.

That would make the viable "invisible" view positions even more constrained
than with the technique shown in the video.

------
driverdan
Notice how the video is only 480 and not HD? I'm guessing it looks more
impressive at low res since it's harder to see how low the "display"
resolution is. Very cool but probably doesn't look as good in person.

~~~
vibrunazo
Judging from the expression of those around it, I wouldn't be so sure.

~~~
papalalu
given that they had a week of filming, and the ability to edit the resulting
video, presenting the desired expressions would not be too difficult.

~~~
wisty
Assuming it's not actors, they were probably posing for their friends on the
other side. Some of them are bound to be photogenic.

If you did it anywhere in East Asia, you'd have a line (or what passes for a
line) of thousands of people waiting to pose.

------
hinathan
This is a much more sophisticated version of something that's been tried off
and on since 1943 —
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffused_lighting_camouflage>

~~~
CitizenPremier
I don't think you could really categorize it as the same thing; illumination
does not refer to producing an image to match your background.

------
rosstafarian
This is the same concept as the guy that made a halloween costume out of 2
ipad's[1]

yes it's nothing new but it's still damn cool and gets people talking.

[1] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6p5mbp_M98>

------
barcoder
This is nice, but it looks as the team making the video hasn't used "real"
footage, instead adding a layer of video of over the LEDs to make the image
cleaner. Some of the shots clearly show the LEDs though.

------
gyom
Note also that only one side of the vehicle has the cloaking. The other side
is just ugly cameras and we can see that at the very end of the video (1:15).

It's not quite the invisibility cloak yet.

------
cww
The technology seems pretty crude, but it's cool, nonetheless.

~~~
CitizenPremier
I think the most relevant question is, if you weren't looking for it, would
you spot it? Right now it obviously draws a lot of attention to itself (hence
using it as an advertisement). On the other hand, I didn't actually notice it
in the first few images until it flickered. It might have some genuine
applications in military and in surveillance; and if it does it's probably
being used now without our knowledge.

------
jakeonthemove
Oh man, I had this idea ever since I saw "Die Another Day". Always wondered if
it would work in real life - apparently, it does!

------
pkulak
Did they figure out how to make one without putting a half a million dollars
worth of platinum in it yet?

------
caycep
this is the camo built into Major Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell!

------
hindsightbias
Panther Modern Wheels

------
inghoff
What's the song?

------
gregatragenet
OMG I hope they bring it to burning man.

------
l33tbro
I don't want to sling mud at Ycombinator here .. but something is a bit fishy.
This is currently the top voted article on HN, but it has only 300 views on
Youtube (and 1100 likes - wtf).

Please tell me this isn't a paid spot - mercedes trying to infiltrate an early
adopter set. I don't want to jump to conclusions, but that would compromise
everything about HN that we love.

~~~
nodemaker
Thats a known bug on youtube.Videos show 304 views initially for quite some
time.(The like count however seems accurate and this video has around 1700
likes)

In fact to verify, you can watch the video yourself 5 times and see if the
view count changes from 304.

~~~
tumultco
Here's the support article from google which describes why viewcounts become
frozen around the 300 mark:

[http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&an...](http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=175736)

