Interactive Windshield Head-Up-Display for Vehicles

Advancement in the field of automobiles is increasing with time. The Head-Up Displays (HUD) are one of the modern displays and interactive interfaces in the auto mobile industry and are mostly used for driver assistance.  They provide a view of all the information needed by the driver within th

Project Title

Interactive Windshield Head-Up-Display for Vehicles

Project Area of Specialization

Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Project Summary

Advancement in the field of automobiles is increasing with time. The Head-Up Displays (HUD) are one of the modern displays and interactive interfaces in the auto mobile industry and are mostly used for driver assistance.  They provide a view of all the information needed by the driver within the windshield such as information of all the parameters of dashboard. Some of the major limitations of existing head up displays are the limited screen size, viewing angle, and poor brightness and transparency. In this project we propose an interactive head-up-display to provide true windshield display experience. We use a special micro-structure surface as projection screen which works on the principle of retro-reflection. The retro-reflective material can provide high brightness by reflecting the incident light back towards light source/projection unit. The retro-reflective material is patterned on the windshield to enable the screen transparency. The interaction with the HUD screen is supported through air-gestures and touch-free selection which is facilitated by using the leap-motion controller. A customized user interface is developed using unity3D software tool.

Project Objectives

1. Develop the optical layout and system design based on the literature study.
2. Develop the fabrication process for a retro-reflective windshield screen.
3. Design and develop of interactive user interface using unity3D and leap-motion controller.
4. Test and evaluate the developed head-up display system in the field/vehicles.

Project Implementation Method

The implementation of our project consists of three parts: the fabrication of transparent retroreflective screen, interaction control using leap-motion and developing digital dashboard style interface in unity3D.

We construct the transparent screen using retroreflective material by slicing the sheets in narrow width (about 1-2mm) and depositing slices on transparent screen vertically with a gap of 2mm. To provide the smooth and flicker free display we aim to use a mechanical assembly to vibrate the screen at the speed higher than the sampling rate of human eyes.  The mechanical assembly will consist of a motor and 3D printed or wooden frame vibrating the screen at the speed of at least 60Hz. A leap-motion controller will be used to detect and track the hand position and orientation of the driver and detect the air-gesture and input provided by the user. A leap-motion sensor contains a wide-angle active infra-red camera to detect the gestures within the range of 50-70cm from the device. The device will be placed close to the vehicle steering. Lastly, the unity3D software will be used to develop customized user interface application. The user interface application will be executed on a portable/mini PC placed inside the vehicle and will be connected to display projection unit and leap-motion controller. In this way the driver will be able to see the road as well as Head up display images in his field of view. Driver will then not need to change its focus as he will see the GPS, dashboard, calls and messages on the windshield.

Benefits of the Project

The primary benefit of the proposed project is to introduce and indigenously developed an efficient, low-cost, and universal head-up-display system in the local market, which can be implemented in any vehicle either locally assembled or imported. Head-up Displays provide a direct information display presented in front of the driver's outside world view. This provides several advantages over head-down instruments (such as LCD panels and dashboard indicators). HUDs help in increasing the time that driver spends in driving the car, the driver would be concentrated on the road as long as possible. Interactive HUDs helps to simply the combined tasks of driving like watching the Navigation road map to the particular destination, picking up the phone calls, and trying to monitor the speed of the car safely. While driving on the long paths the driver could face the overall tiredness or lack of energy but while interacting with the augmented reality on the windshield of the car, it reduces the fatigue in managing vehicle information while paying attention to the road.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The final demonstration will be based on integrated hardware and software setup. The hardware will be installed in the car and will consist of an customized transparent retro-reflective screen along with a mini-projector, a leap motion sensor for user interaction, the software part will provide air-gesture detection, user-input and display 3D animated virtual interface on the screen.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Transportation

Other Industries

Manufacturing

Core Technology

Augmented & Virtual Reality

Other Technologies

Others

Sustainable Development Goals

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Life on Land

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com