The joint strike fighter F35 uses similar technology to look "through" the aircraft, but the images are all projected inside the pilot's helmet. This technology is visible to everyone inside the car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDk5HdGfuVI#t=40
From the video: The transparent car was designed by researchers in Japan. Made of simple components, but the secret is the retroreflective fabric screens. Early versions required drivers to wear helmets. Now the images are projected onto the special materials. The special screens reflect light directly back to the observer, instead of at an angle equal to but opposite of the incident angle.
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(Score: 3, Informative) by Pav on Saturday November 15 2014, @04:35AM
I wonder if they're using CastAR [technicalillusions.com]. This technology was invented by Jeri Ellsworth, who also developed the famous C64-in-a-joystick years ago. To hear her explain the first 18 months of development in detail see this video [youtube.com], though the project has moved far since then and is already shipping to developers, perhaps including the guys in TFA. I have a friend who may also be using this technology for a similar purpose, but he can't talk about it. CastAR is a very new and exciting technology, and there's probably a world of completely novel applications such as the above.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Saturday November 15 2014, @04:40AM
Hmmmm... perhaps the early version was CastAR-based, but it looks like they've since moved away from head tracking/projecting.
(Score: 1) by Gravis on Saturday November 15 2014, @07:07AM
I wonder if they're using CastAR. This technology was invented by Jeri Ellsworth,
which technology? retroreflective materials? that tech is so old that it's literally on the moon. retroreflective materials combined with projectors is also decades old. the difference is that now there are projectors small enough for it to be head mounted. the "see through" illusion idea is also ancient.
you fail.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Pav on Saturday November 15 2014, @01:16PM
Everything is obvious in retrospect.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Nuke on Saturday November 15 2014, @01:56PM
I see the car in the demo has the usual battle-tank rear window slit that is fashionable these days. Perhaps a better idea would be a return to bigger rear windows.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Saturday November 15 2014, @02:39PM
Yeah, I knew retroreflective materials aren't new and are cheap and plentiful (eg. CastAR came from a happy accident with some that Jeri just had laying around). I like the new applications though eg. surface could become a GUI/touchscreen/remote/whatever, though personally I'm excited about immersive 3d-in-the-real-world which requires head mounted projecting/tracking. I don't really see how novel uses of old tech isn't invention eg. what's a laser printer but a photocopier that charges its drum with a computer controlled laser, and the fundamentals of computing haven't changed since WWII.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by carguy on Saturday November 15 2014, @03:05PM
I see the car in the demo has the usual battle-tank rear window slit that is fashionable these days. Perhaps a better idea would be a return to bigger rear windows.
Mod parent up. Just about all current cars (available in USA) have gone this way. It is probably from copying Chris Bangle at BMW and the bangle butt?
http://jalopnik.com/5927545/does-chris-bangle-deserve-a-lifetime-achievement-award-for-car-design [jalopnik.com]
Hopefully some of the other stylists will realize that the emperor really has no clothes...and will bring back cars with reasonable exterior vision in all directions. The last thing I want are cameras and more electronics to fix when the car gets old.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday November 16 2014, @01:11AM
... somebody bumps your parked car or...
... vandalizes your cameras (instead of just scratching the paint, sticks a screw in the lens of the camera) or...
... just an unfortunate bit of mud happens to occlude the camera or...
You get the idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by emg on Sunday November 16 2014, @06:27AM
I believe you'll find the small windows are, in part, because they make meeting crash test requirements easier.
Besides which, you can probably charge more for putting cameras around the car than you can for bigger windows. Pretty soon, we'll go 'Captain Scarlet', where the seats face backwards to protect you in a crash, and you steer while watching a TV screen that shows you the view outside.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 15 2014, @05:36AM
Land Rover has been working on a "transparent hood."
Here's a video, [youtube.com] seems to be CGI though.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Bot on Saturday November 15 2014, @08:30AM
I feel like a cabriolet ends up giving me too much information about the surroundings, while what matters most is the place where you're going to be in a couple seconds.
This is why some cars used to have the option of dimming/disabling light in the instrument panel. It could distract.
Anyway if this tech can make a car transparent, it also can be used on a smaller area to improve visibility where it matters the most.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 15 2014, @04:41PM
> This is why some cars used to have the option of dimming/disabling light in the instrument panel. It could distract.
You seem to be implying that not all cars have dimming in the instrument panel. I have yet to see such a car in my 30+ years of driving.