Ford has revealed that it is working on a new type of car window that lets blind passengers feel the environment around them.
Called simply ‘Feel the view’ the experimental technology uses powerful LED lights to recreate the image and then passes vibrations through the glass creating a physical recreation of the surrounding landscape that the passenger can then feel by running their hands across the window.
The system is being developed by Ford Italy and a local startup called Aedo that specialises in creating devices for people with visual impairments.
Once attached to the car, the user simply presses a single button at which point the device takes a picture of the view outside.
The image is then converted into greyscale and is then recreated using the powerful LEDs embedded in the gadget.
The user can touch the image and can actually feel the shapes and textures as each shade of grey vibrates with a range of over 250 intensities. Finally, an in-built AI system is able to describe the image audibly using the car’s stereo system as well.
Ford hasn’t yet said whether or not it will roll the technology out to global customers and so for now it’s simply a prototype.