
Apple Patent Turns Car Windscreen into Giant Augmented Reality Screen - jpindar
https://www.newsweek.com/apple-patent-turns-car-windscreen-giant-augmented-reality-screen-1062468
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sthgrau
I don't know what is necessarily novel in this. For example, I remember (but
can't find) a feature for a high end car that showed IR camera display to
highlight unseen deer on the road..

Anyway, I think this is a good feature for intermediate automated cars. There
is a problem with keeping people interested enough to be ready to take over if
there is a situation that the computer lacks the confidence to deal with. One
application might be to turn the display into a game field. When there is
traffic, you could be able to interact with the other cars on the road. When
there isn't there could be simulations. That way, you are always looking
forward and at least somewhat engaged.

As safety confidence drops, the system can highlight the area where the
problem is developing, giving a subtle hint to get ready.

For later iterations, the controls could become more "game controller" like
where the driver is choosing between different scenarios and the system
figures out how to do it.

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na85
>For example, I remember (but can't find) a feature for a high end car that
showed IR camera display to highlight unseen deer on the road.

IIRC that was Lincoln, or perhaps Cadillac. I remember the TV commercials from
my early teens.

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awad
Cadillac had the first go in 2000. Mercedes and BMW have had night vision for
little over a decade now while Audi and Lexus have more recently joined the
fray, but all have had them out for at least one generation of vehicles.

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dep_b
> Another feature in the patent—titled Panicky Occupant Detection—would
> monitor drivers' stress levels by observing their eye movement, body
> posture, body temperature, eye blink rate, heart rate and body gestures. The
> HUD would then adjust which display elements are shown on the windscreen.

Or people driven nuts by their spouses in the other seat?

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tjoff
> _The HUD would then adjust which display elements are shown on the
> windscreen._

Yeah, it wouldn't add to the already stressful situation if you suddenly
couldn't find whatever you were looking for, not at all.

These dynamic adaptations to the GUI has always resulted in the worst UI ever.
Consistency is paramount.

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swiley
And people wonder why some of us just like editing text config files in vim...

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nicoburns
Well vim is modal, so it's not exactly doing well in this regard!

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tjoff
I don't consider vim to be a culprit, you really can't update your key-
bindings dynamically (in practice) to say more efficiently utlize the home
row. It would be unusable and the UI would have no way to conway the new
mappings.

Vim is still consistent, you have to mentally keep track of which mode you are
in but that's second nature after you've groked it. Dynamic UI changes are not
and always requires you to do one extra roundtrip and scan the UI for what
options are currently available and adapt to it.

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autoexec
Just one more place to expect ads being shoved in your face.

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jstarfish
The liabilities there are too great to be worth it.

Given that it's AR though, I expect existing billboards to be replaced with
greenscreens and the windshield will augment your reality to display whatever
some algorithm thinks you should see on it.

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smolsky
So, AdBlock++?

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henriquemaia
uBlock Origin, with updated lists. That is, once the Windshield gets
jailbroken.

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jarmitage
Better link: [http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2018/08/apple-
in...](http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2018/08/apple-invents-an-
augmented-reality-windshield-that-will-even-support-facetime-calls-between-
different-vehicles.html)

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MBCook
As a driver, this could be nice.

As a PASSENGER, if this stuff moves around based on where the driver’s head is
I would get motion sickness really fast.

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aqme28
Wear polarized sunglasses.

Light reflecting off of a windshield tends to polarize. If your glasses are
90° offset, you shouldn't see much.

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tjoff
That is not a solution.

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PeterWathall
Ugh this is going to end up like ford's patents where really simple things
that every car should have can't be used in any cars because the law says so.
We almost ended up with this happening to seat belts and that would have
ruined cars.

Simple ideas that anyone could and has come up with should not be eligible for
patents, I thought about this idea a decade ago and other people obviously
thought about it long before me. Doesn't mean I should be able to stop
everyone else doing it.

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sgillen
I almost forgot Apple was still working on cars..

>As for FaceTime, Apple hopes it can help drivers communicate visually while
driving.

Does this seem like it could be a bad idea to anyone else? usually the whole
point of facetime is that you are looking at the person (rather than the road)
seems like it could lead to more accidents? I guess it's probably not a big
deal, and way better than texting an driving.

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excalibur
I like the notion of deep-field AR along the lines of Hololens or Magic Leap
being possible with a simple pair of passive 3D glasses. This opens a range of
possibilities, such as a whole new kind of IRL Mario Kart. (However this
design would need to be safety-focused in a way that few video games have ever
had to, which would likely detract from that particular experience.)

But, as another user has pointed out, this would need to be optimized for the
viewer's head placement, resulting in a terrible experience for passengers. So
the default should be a basic HUD. Facetime will be fine with this. Maps will
probably need multiple modes for different levels of immersion based on user
preference.

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polskibus
Is that like a HUD in a fighter? Wouldn't that count for prior art?

~~~
rtkwe
No those are separate displays not built into the windshield/screen.

Personally this really shouldn't be patentable but mainly because it's
basically a software patent. There's not really much there that's physical
other than the display and the fact it interacts with 'sensors' the rest is
just a piece of software.

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hermitdev
HUDs in aircraft are still just a reflection off of a surface. There have
already been cars with HUDs. Doing this with a single surface doesn't seem
innovative to me, seems like a logical leap.

TL;DR; I think this patent will eventually be rebuked.

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Rotdhizon
I hope I'm not the only one who's initial reaction was "What the hell is a
windscreen?" I know windshield, not windscreen. They didn't say windshield in
the article, I don't know if they are referring to the windshield or not.

The functionality isn't even the hard part, it's the mountain of legal issues
you raise with distracted driving. I would assume the facetime calling would
only be permitted when the car isn't moving.

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qubex
I think windscreen/windshield is one of those bonnet/hood trans-Atlantic
discrepancies that turn out to be synonyms.

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cabaalis
With self driving cars somewhere in the forseeable future, I wonder if a
system like seen in the movie "Daybreakers" is realistic. One where the
windshields are blacked out, and video hud allows you to see outside. In that
case the windshields could be replaced with a stronger material, and maybe car
designs become even more aerodynamic. See also the airplanes that have no
windows for passengers.

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shmerl
So Apple want to charge all futuristic AR car makers, because "Apple invented
it"? The idea of AR on anything is known for a long time already. It's more of
a typical future protection racket attempt through software patents and
shouldn't be patentable.

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torstenvl
OT: Wait, is Newsweek a British publication? Most vehicles don't have
windscreens within the American meaning of that term.

