The technology concerns an innovative method of using augmented reality glasses in a moving vehicle as a vehicle-drive interface, to provide safe and effective visual support to assist the driver while driving. This method is implemented via a HW/SW platform that connects the worn device and the vehicle data.
Patent Status
GRANTED
Priority Number
102019000017429
Priority Date
27/09/2019
License
INTERNATIONAL
Market
The technology can potentially be applied globally on any type of vehicle (several billion vehicles). Taking into account the specific context of sports cars – a market segment that has shown particular interest in integrating a driving support system to improve driving performance and ensure the safe use of information – there are approximately 33 million vehicles in use (TAM) worldwide. Considering only newly manufactured vehicles, this amounts to 800,000 cars per year (SAM). In particular, considering the European market and the super-car sub-segment (more powerful cars designed primarily for track use), an estimated 36 thousand units per year (SOM) can be estimated.
Problem
The use of information while driving is a very complex but necessary activity both for safety issues but also for driving comfort. Drivers want or need access to different types of information: vehicle status, infotainment and digital systems, and they also need to interact with semi-autonomous or driver support systems. However, current in-vehicle technologies fail to guarantee adequate comfort and safety standards: 70 per cent of accidents involve visual errors (distraction, poor visibility, occlusions) and the integration of semi-autonomous systems requires new, safer and more effective ways for the driver to monitor ADAS and regain full control of the vehicle when necessary. This type of problem/need is concrete on any type of vehicle: first and foremost, on road vehicles, but also on industrial vehicles (e.g., tractors or logistics vehicles) and on track sports cars (the high-speed context requires an even greater reduction in complexity for the use of information).
Current technologies limits / Solutions
The most commonly used technologies as vehicle-driver interface systems to provide driver information and visual support are physical monitors (screens) and Head Up Displays or HUDs (transparent screens, sometimes integrated into the windscreen). However, the amount of information that needs to be provided to the driver does not allow for an effective use of monitors, which are therefore becoming larger or are increasing in number inside the passenger compartment, thereby exacerbating the problems of distraction and occlusion. HUDs, on the other hand, allow information to be displayed in the driver’s field of vision, thus avoiding distraction on the road. However, the high integration costs and technological limitations (field of vision view covered, depth, resolution and contrast of the images) do not make them a definitive solution for an effective use of information. In some contexts (such as industry), HUDs have found no place at all, while on road vehicles or sports cars they tend to be considered optional extras.
Killer Application
The killer application of technology is on sports cars. In this context, in fact, it is essential to always keep your eyes on the road and, at the same time, monitor various vehicle parameters. This is with the ultimate aim of improving driving performance, limiting dangers and accidents. The technology in question provides information to support driving as ‘projected’ onto the road, constituting a new-generation interface that’s capable of transforming the driving experience on the track: better performance and safer at the same time.
Technology and our solution
The patented technology concerns a method for driver assistance using augmented reality glasses. This technology is brought to the market as a HW/SW platform that enables the use of holographic glasses as a vehicle-driver interface. Consequently, there is the opportunity to propose such a platform both as a service and as a product on which specific applications can be developed according to context. Considering the use case of sports cars, such a platform can be used as a tool for real-time display of telemetry data recorded by data logging devices. The main functionalities of the platform are: communication with the vehicle, management of the sensors integrated in the holographic glasses, execution of the positioning algorithms, execution of the graphics engine and management of the projective system integrated in the glasses. From the software point of view, the platform represents a black box, which provides real-time information regarding: the position of the holographic glasses inside the cockpit, the position and orientation of the vehicle in the world (precise positioning), and vehicle data.
Advantages
In addition to the specific technological advantages of holographic glasses over physical monitors or head-up displays (such as resolution, pixel density, contrast ratio…), the main advantages of the HW/SW platform based on the technology include:
With respect to the need/problem of information fruition while driving, the designed enables drivers to use the information without ever taking their eyes off the road, while reducing the cognitive effort of understanding geo-referenced data, reducing occlusions and distractions typical of physical monitors while guaranteeing a high possibility of customisation of the interface layout.
Roadmap
The research group that developed this technology formed an innovative startup (HMDrive Srl) in May 2022 with the aim of developing an industrialised, market-ready product. Over the last few months, the startup has taken the technology from a TRL 4 to a TRL 6 and is now working on some pilot projects with OEMs from the sport car and industrial vehicle world. Furthermore, it is planning to raise a funding round with the aim of completing the technology development, reaching a TRL 8 and proposing a first engineered solution of the HW/SW platform for the sport car use case. The main technical development milestones concern the consolidation of the algorithmics, the engineered design of the HW setup, the definition of the UX and the certification process for track use.
TRL
Team
