BMW-owned Mini has an interesting new plan that is as much of a throwback as it is a look into the future. That plan, as it turns out, is a set of driving goggles.
These aren’t your father or grandfather’s driving goggles – they’re augmented reality goggles that Mini says would be the best way for drivers to be fed useful information while driving. And according to some first-hand accounts, the goggles, as well as the new Mini itself, appear to be very promising. The new car has a variety of camera-based active safety features including collision avoidance and pedestrian detection, and its heads-up display shows drivers speed, navigation details, and other information on the windshield. But what about those goggles?
According to Wired, the goggles, which were co-designed by BMW, Design Works USA, and Qualcomm, are indeed working “pretty well,” with reviewer Alex Davies impressed “by how seamlessly they added a digital layer to whatever I was looking at.” BMW and Qualcomm had reduced the time for the system to see something, process the information, and top it off with graphics, and had done so by predicting how a driver’s head would move. Qualcomm VP of connected experiences Jay Wright claims that the goggles are getting to a point of “effective zero latency,” though latency in one form or another still cannot be avoided on the device.
The actual design of the BMW/Mini goggles comes courtesy of BMW-owned Design Works USA, a Southern California-based company. Traditional aviator-style lenses work together with two downward-facing HD (720p) displays, while the top of the goggles includes a printed circuit board. Between both lenses, a front camera can be found, while the goggles’ position is tracked by an infrared camera, also located on top. The goggles can also be used in conjunction with prescription lenses, and come with an adjustable nose bridge.
Davies was impressed with how easy the goggles were to use in his first-hand account for Wired. But he singled out the X-ray vision feature on the Mini goggles, which allow drivers to “effectively look through the metal” when inside a car. But he did acknowledge that the system is not yet perfect, and that BMW may improve on the goggles as the device is still in the prototype stage.
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