Projection on the windshield - a successful application of aviation technology

2024 Author: Erin Ralphs | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-19 11:42

The psychological burden on a driver in urban traffic is comparable to the stress experienced by an interceptor pilot in a dogfight. It's no surprise that automakers are borrowing some of the technology from their aerial engineer colleagues to speed up decision making in a critical situation.

This primarily concerns informational ergonomics. In particular, recently the leading manufacturers of the automotive industry have increasingly used the projection on the windshield of the readings of the main instruments located on the torpedo panel.

Aviation experience

With the advent of jet aircraft, and in particular supersonic aircraft, the time allotted to the pilot to make a decision in air combat has been drastically reduced. If two fighters fly towards each other, the distance between them decreases by hundreds of meters every fraction of a second. At the same time, pilots must monitor such important flight indicators as altitude, roll andtrim, in order not to crash into the ground or not to enter the car into an uncontrolled spin. In the heat of battle, as the conflicts of the second half of the last century showed, pilots do not have time to keep track of fuel consumption, as a result of which a rather large percentage of losses occurred due to the fact that kerosene ran out in the tanks.

Constantly lowering my eyes to the dashboard, distracted from the air situation, it turned out to be difficult, especially when it changes every moment. The decision was first made, according to some sources, in Sweden, by the Saab company, and according to others, in the USSR (the situation of secrecy at the turn of the 50s and 60s does not allow us to say who had it earlier). In any case, it was not easy for the designers of that time. The projection on the windshield of the aircraft was carried out by means of a complex optical system that displayed a signal from a kinescope, which was rather bulky. However, the result was worth the effort.

First experiences of car builders

In 1988, the American company Oldsmobile introduced a novelty. "Catlass Supreme" in itself was a good, solid and beautiful car, but all its advantages served only as a backdrop for the main "chip". For the first time, along with a conventional torpedo, a projection was used on the windshield of a car produced in a series. Fifty copies were immediately purchased by the organizers of the Indianapolis 500 races, placing an order for the convertible body variant - obviously, in order to make the innovation better visible to everyone. Actually, by our today's standards, the display was more than modest. The most important then seemed to be the projection of speed on the windshield (they were always fined for exceeding), and besides it, the driver could see the speed, turn signals, antifreeze temperature and a couple more parameters - all in one color. But a start was made, and BMW, Honda, Citroen, Nissan and Toyota soon followed suit.

Idea development

Other technical achievements of the military-industrial complex are also of interest to automotive companies. For example, night vision goggles have proven useful for driving in the dark. The projection of an infrared image onto the windshield, carried out in such a way that the driver visibly combines the real object with its ghostly blue silhouette, helps to avoid collision with people and animals suddenly appearing on the roadway. Some models of Honda, Cadillac and Toyota have such systems. The vision of boundary objects is especially important when parking, especially if the image is also “speaking”, and the distance to obstacles is measured and reflected right in front of the driver’s eyes. But this is already a different level of technology, which is impossible to achieve without computer technology.

New Features

The usual projection of the speedometer on the windshield today seems like a simple task, its solution is available even to small workshops involved in restyling car interiors. Truly advanced technologies involve the creation of a completely different, much more serious information saturation of the field.driver's vision while driving. On the road today, GPS information is very important, but the tight time schedule makes it difficult to use the system. You need to stop, look at the electronic map. The projection of the navigator on the windshield allows you to navigate while driving, looking through the display and making decisions almost instantly.

Technology and operation principle

The main scourge of the "transparent display" - its monochrome - was effectively overcome after the mass introduction of technologies of the late twentieth century, namely, low-power lasers, LEDs, liquid crystal display devices and plasma panels. All these advances in the technological revolution have made it possible to create devices that are small, energy-efficient and affordable, easy to install in any car.

The display principle itself is quite simple. Data from the sensors installed on the nodes and assemblies flow into the central information device, combined with the projector. An image is formed on its display, which, after its illumination, is fed to an optical lens system, and then to a transparent polymer film glued to the glass.

How to do it?

In general, there are systems that provide a good display of instrument readings that anyone can install on their own. In this case, it is not necessary to seriously understand the schemes of the car. For example, speed data can be obtained from GPSnavigator, and they will be even more reliable, since, unlike a conventional tachometer, they do not depend on the diameter of the wheels. However, it should be remembered that the projection on the windshield will be of high quality only if it is in perfect (or almost) condition. Cracks, scratches and chips are unacceptable. And, of course, the easier it is to install such a system, the more expensive it is. It is still safer and more efficient to contact specialized workshops.