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14-Year-Old Genius Solves Blind Spots
Using some relatively inexpensive and readily available technology you can find at any well-stocked electronics store, Alaina Gassler, a 14-year-old inventor from West Grove, Pennsylvania, came up with a clever way to eliminate the blind spot created by the thick pillars on the side of a car's windshield.
Gassler's actually too young to have a driver's license in most states and has never experienced the frustration of trying to see around those pillars while driving, but that didn't stop her from tackling a problem that automakers have largely ignored. Her solution involves installing an outward-facing webcam on the outside of a vehicle's windshield pillar, and then projecting a live feed from that camera onto the inside of that pillar. Custom 3D-printed parts allowed her to perfectly align the projected image so that it seamlessly blends with what a driver sees through the passenger window and the windshield, essentially making the pillar invisible.
Her invention was part of a project called "Improving Automobile Safety by Removing Blind Spots," which Gassler presented at this year's Society for Science and the Public's Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars) science and engineering competition. (It's basically a next-level science fair minus the cheesy papier-mâché volcanoes.) Her ingenuity was enough to earn her the competition's top honor, the Samueli Foundation Prize, which also netted Gassler $25,000.
A YouTube video of this invention in use is available.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Monday November 04 2019, @12:15AM (1 child)
I was pretty disappointed to see that the vast bulk of comments here were along the lines of "Not really an invention", "Done before [poorly]", or "Just a kid".
Suck it up - this girl implemented something that you didn't. Most inventions are obvious after the fact.
Full points to her, and no points to the whining SN crybabies.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @01:01PM
I had 360 degree video feed from around my previous car in late 2009 (when the ION-ITX-A was around, which was the board of choice for my car at the time). It would display "blind spots" on the monitor (LinITX 8" Widescreen VGA/Composite Monitor with Touchscreen). It was dynamic too. Most of the time it would show what was behind the driver-side pillar but when I had a full load (being an estate), I would split the view to also show what was directly behind the car (yay for tiling window managers!).
I actually miss it a lot because in my new car, the pillars are *much* more intrusive.
So no, this isn't really anything especially noteworthy in the grand scheme of things, but is definitely cool at the personal level!