Feel the View: Ford’s New Smart Window

May 8, 2018

Today, Apex United Corporation brings you technology news coming from American Multinational Automaker: Ford.

Ford is developing a new smart car window that will help blind passengers experience the outdoors and passing landscape. The preliminary design, called “Feel the View,” will use high-contrast photographs to recreate scenery by using LED lights. Passengers will be able to touch the display and feel different vibrations at different intensities. In addition to the window display, “Feel the View” will also feature a voice-assistant that uses Artificial Intelligence to describe the scenery outside of the vehicle.

Ford briefly explained the technology in their announcement: “Feel The View 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.” Ford’s Italy team worked with GTB Roma and a local start-up, Aedo, that specializes in devices for the visually impaired. Robin Spinks, innovation manager for The Royal National Institute of Blind People, told the BBC that the charity “wholeheartedly supports” Ford’s effort, and that, “It could contribute to breaking down barriers and making travel more enjoyable and inclusive for people living with sight loss.”

Ford Europe uploaded a video to YouTube showing the world’s first device allowing blind and visually impaired people to enjoy the view from a car’s passenger seat. The video, which was posted on April 30, 2018, already has over 31,000 views. The prototype is part of Ford’s advanced research, which means while there are no current plans to bring this to market, Ford’s engineers are flexing what they can do. “Feel the View” is accompanied with an AI voice assistant that wires into the car’s audio system and put what the passengers are feeling into context.

Maybe this is the kind of technology that will show up in a Ford Autonomous vehicle. It is known that the auto manufacturer is testing their technology and future business model through pilot programs. Ford has been using these research vehicles to learn the logistical challenges of a driverless vehicle. One of the challenges presented is how an autonomous vehicle interacts with passengers and provides them with the information needed to get from one destination to another.

Apex United Corporation wants to know what you think about Ford’s new “Feel the View” smart window!