from the now-why-didn't-I-think-of-that? dept.
Submitted via IRC for soylent_yellow
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: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @04:26AM (16 children)
This was pretty obvious, but until the past few years when flexible OLED displays became available it was impractical/impossible.
That said I am pretty sure there are TV shows from 5-15 years ago that depicted cars with exactly this feature on the inside, as well as older sci-fi that had it projecting over all opaque internal window surfaces (Maybe one of the Blade movies?)
Not saying a woman can't be a genius or inventor, this invention just doesn't pass the bar or sniff test.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:05AM (1 child)
Agreed. It's not a difficult idea to stumble over, but technology had to catch up to the idea before it could be of any use. It's a great idea, but I wouldn't call it genius.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @01:50PM
The have invisible pillars. Also made an invisible car.
Hell Top Gear made an invisible van with STOCK TVs.
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:06AM (3 children)
The fix has had a solution for a long time but the problem has always been cost and not what could be done to fix it. Unless she also invented a cheaper folding LCD for the pillar that doesn't interupt the airbag.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday November 03 2019, @07:37PM (2 children)
Yeah, that also lot of GorillaGlass III to try and protect the things.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @06:05AM (1 child)
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Monday November 04 2019, @10:11PM
Not particularly, but they do need protection. Every grocery run hauling bags out of the car or horny teenager is going to be banging the heck out of these.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:08AM (4 children)
The legendary Steve Wozniak had a few things to say about self-driving cars. He said that they will not be viable in the near future. And as an industry insider, I fully agree. I will provide more details later, but I am drunk now so you will have to wait. I will show you why, but now is not the time.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:11AM (1 child)
Still drunk, EF?
The last time I was over, I snagged your wallet off of the floor. Took a look at your driver's license. Where most licenses have some kind of statement about donating good organs, yours has a list of organs you need.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:25AM
Well, then, you can see that my organs are useless: But I'd like my lungs to be put to good use. And smoking tobacco and pot are two good uses of those organs.
Make good use of them, my friend. The night is young!
(Score: 5, Funny) by vux984 on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:13AM
Darn. This is the main reason we need self driving cars.
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday November 03 2019, @07:35PM
1) it's cool, I've still got a little while before I need one.
2) If you are worried about posting drunk then...wait, WHO ARE YOU AND HOW DID YOU GET EF's Account?
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:52AM (1 child)
Those cameras and screens also have to support the ridiculously high dynamic range that we encounter between the bright sunny day and a night road that is illuminated only by the headlights, your own or oncoming. I wonder what is better - to depend on technology and not see a shadowy figure, or to look around the pillar and see it. The rear view cameras that already replace glass mirrors in some European cars (and coming to the USA [slashgear.com]) do not need to be so sensitive, as they look into the past, and they are good enough to see a car with lights - not any worse, at least, than a regular mirror. But forward vision is more demanding, and at night drivers regularly have to detect pedestrians or bicyclists in dark clothes who think they are invulnerable.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday November 03 2019, @12:29PM
10,000 or 30,000 nits oughta be bright enough.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Sunday November 03 2019, @12:17PM
The "genius" part is that they were able to find a way to inflate the price of cars by cheaply implementing a useless "safety" feature that will easily break or need constant upgrades at the service center. In a few more years, it will be law that everyone has this.
Total f-ing evil genius.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @04:58PM
No need to involve her gender, even if the pseudo-feminists will. This has more to do with class conflict.
How many people here had a great idea when they were kids, but lacked funding, support, PR campaign in the media, etc. Behind every child "prodigy" is somebody with access to lots of resources that the child herself does not have, in addition to a stable home and three square meals per day. The media loves their child prodigies. It's a very Randian narrative.
We should just internalize the idea that some people are übermensch and the rest of us, untermensch. After all, if we had been born as übermensch, we would have self-substantiated access to funding, support, and a media PR blitz with our virtuousness when we were kids too. So we must simply shut up and keep our noses to the grindstone while our betters run society.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:49PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @04:30AM (12 children)
If nothing else, it highlights these ridiculous fat A-pillars that car designers have foisted on the public.
Or, you know, you could design the car with a thin A-pillar. Current ultra high strength steels are strong enough to pass the roll-over test with a reasonable width pillar. The fancy material isn't all that much more expensive than lower strength steel.
Personally, I'd prefer the version that didn't depend on electronics.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @04:58AM (3 children)
The fat A-pillars are for holding airbags.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @06:36AM (1 child)
and the air-bags are needed - because of accidents caused by fat A-pillars. This is called "The American way to road safety".
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @07:29AM
According to the statistics, the most common accidents are single-vehicle accidents, of which the vast majority are running off the road or hitting an obstacle in the roadway (e.g. debris, animals, etc.). The second most common is rear-end collisions, where a vehicle runs into a slower vehicle from behind. The third is being T-boned while turning at an intersection due to the other driver failure to follow a signaling device. The fourth is being T-boned at an intersection due to the turning car's failure to yield or follow a signaling device. The fifth is being T-boned while turning onto a major street from an uncontrolled entry due to improper yielding by the turning driver.
Note that only one of the top five would the A pillar even come into play in terms of causing an accident, and even then in most instances it would be obstructive only after an accident is inevitable anyway. But also note that in three of the top five, and possibly one additional one depending what happens after you leave the road (e.g. rollover), the airbag in the A pillar would drastically reduce the damage to the occupants from smashing into the side of the car.
So no, the air-bags are not needed to offset the accidents caused by thicker A pillars.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday November 03 2019, @03:33PM
Old cars with more upright windshields had narrow pillars that aren't obstructive. When you have a low, swoopy windshield you need more material to support the roof and you may want to move the door hinges back to avoid having a stupidly long door, leaving more dead space between the windshield and side window.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:09AM (1 child)
Citations needed.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @02:29AM
I'm the AC that started this subject. You want a citation, here's one, bulk steel prices - https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/ultra-high-strength-steel.html [alibaba.com] Plenty of hits to choose from with a simple search.
Costs for a variety of different alloys seem to be from $450 - $800 per ton. Some of the coils on that page are just cold rolled, others fancy alloys that gain strength in forming.
To change a few critical areas of a car body-in-white from low/medium strength steel to a much stronger alloy is not a big deal in cost.
To the other comments on airbags -- have you noticed how steering wheel airbags have shrunk over the years? A-pillar airbags are also shrinking to match what can be built with good steel (and still pass the rollover test requirement).
(Score: 4, Disagree) by coolgopher on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:40AM
I was driving my dad's old Volvo 245 wagon some time ago. It was amazing. You can see EVERYTHING in all directions! Okay, it might not do quite as well in a roll test, but you know, the odds are a lot lower that I'll ever manage to roll a car than that I'll fail to see something because of obscuring pillars.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @06:17AM
Yeah right. They will do the cheapest they can get away with. I've had bean counters bitch because BOMs for products came in too high and their suggested solution was to trim a couple pennies off each part to take a few dollars of the BOM to get their magic number. In one case, we rework it a bit, but it is still too high. They suggest changing the main power transistors, main caps to something cheaper (the only pieces we didn't reduce the cost of, IIRC) and reducing the heat sinks for them. When we pointed out that would increase their risk of failure by a certain percentage and shorten the life. They crunched the numbers and said to do it because they'd likely fail after their "life" is up and they could get insurance in case something going really wrong during the warranty period.
TL;DR if bean counters are willing to ask you to risk complete failure of a product over a couple of cents, imagine what they'd risk to save hundreds of dollars per product.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @06:50AM (3 children)
Good visibility in a car HAS to have a lot of value as a preventitive to accidents. Personally, I would choose decent glass all around like I have in my 2008 car over the tank-like, limited visibility of new cars. You simply can't see well. Don't tell me that a car made as little as 11 years ago is unsafe, either. Alas, the government doesn't give the customer any choice. Thus, we are condemned to drive bulbous, heavy tanks with weak acceleration (to save gas!) and thousands of dollars of mandatory safety crap that is unnecessary. I really hate all new cars. They feel like a PC that is bogged down with an intrusive, company-mandated anti-virus that kicks in every hour when you are just trying to get work done.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @02:34AM (2 children)
I've got a few older cars with good visibility and I'm planning to keep them. So I understand where you are coming from on visibility.
However, it's plain not true to say "weak acceleration" -- some of the quickest accelerating cars ever build are on the market now. Many of the new small motors with integrated turbocharging have better power/weight ratios than the larger engines they replace.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @12:01PM (1 child)
The acceleration on many new cars has been badly tuned in order to meet government fuel efficiency standards.
When using the accelerator in a normal fashion, you get lethargic acceleration. But, if you want actual power, you floor the thing and then the engine/transmission roars with power. The thing is, I don't want to drive that way. I just want smooth, quiet power delivered in a linear manner without having to floor it, not this binary weak/monster power curve.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @04:43AM
If anyone is still here, the industry calls this "tip-in" -- changing the effective "gearing" between the accelerator pedal and the power output (or throttle plate angle). Some companies liked to make the first bit of throttle pedal quickly open the throttle to 1/3 or so, this meant that with a light touch on the pedal, the car would surge forward and feel very "powerful" to the prospective buyer.
This might have been effective for selling cars, but it also makes the car hard to live with in normal driving, hard to accurately control the power at the low-power end of the engine capability.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:23AM (3 children)
I have poor color vision, so maybe it's just me. And, there's not a whole lot of color in the video. But, it seems like colors are being washed out on her screen. Is that so, or maybe it's an artifact of making a video of a screen? I don't guess it matters a whole lot, the goal of removing the blind spot works. If a person were approaching your vehicle in the blind spot, you could see him/her, and avoid running over a pedestrian.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:54AM (1 child)
It is full-color, not grayscale or B&W. There are three reasons why the color looks like crap. The first is that pico-projectors are limited in their color and brightness due to their small size. The second is due to the beige A pillar further altering the colors of the projection by giving them a beige tint. The third is the camera is probably set to auto, which compensates for the bright, bluish white outside, not the darker "white" inside. Together, the colors will appear dark (low power, lower reflectivity, and low gain) and off (uneven absorption and reflection of the light it does get, and white-point adjustment).
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 03 2019, @06:07AM
Thank you for that. That ends my speculations about cheap cameras and more!
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @08:11AM
Fricking racist! As if the color of the pedestrian made a difference! #PedestrianLivesMatter!
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:43AM (2 children)
https://media.jaguarlandrover.com/news/2014/12/jaguar-land-rover-develops-transparent-pillar-and-follow-me-ghost-car-navigation [jaguarlandrover.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OlqditIsoM [youtube.com] bonnet demo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c98h41TkREA [youtube.com] a pilar, b pilar, ghost car... and all kind of useless distractions, I am sure ads will be next.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 03 2019, @06:05AM
Nice finds. I note that the pillars are only about 80% transparent, with the remainder being opaque. The transparent hood would be most useful around schools, day care centers, and anyplace you might find rugrats, anklebiters, and inattentive children. The follow-me car? Bad idea, IMO - the ghost car itself isn't so bad, but the "follow-me" tag actually obstructs part of the windshield.
The young lady in TFA actually seems to have a better implementation than Jaguar.
Of course, watching a video, and actually driving the vehicles are probably quite different. Can I borrow somebody's Jag with these features? For research purposes only, of course. Maybe I need to get in touch with a long-lost second cousin. The guy collects and restores Jaguars. He could spend a whole day removing all the wooden bits on a dashboard, polishing all that stuff, then lay it aside so he could put it back in the next day. Of course, any of us kids who got close enough to smell the wood polish were chased off like vermin. He never did become my favorite cousin, or anything like that.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @12:30PM
You forgot to add Toyota has a patent on a similar system since 2011.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by paul_engr on Sunday November 03 2019, @06:04AM (1 child)
This is neither genius nor original
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @03:05PM
The point is to beat the drum of "girl engineer discovers what men engineers in industry haven't", not "kid in puberty puts 2 and 2 together and derives an obvious idea, engineers in industry had that idea shot down by bean counters decades ago".
(Score: 2) by mendax on Sunday November 03 2019, @06:43AM (4 children)
This problem was solved years ago. It's called "convex mirrors." I put them on the mirrors of my little pickup truck and voilla! no more blind spot. Who needs modern technology?
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 4, Informative) by MadTinfoilHatter on Sunday November 03 2019, @06:51AM (1 child)
Please RTFS.
We're talking about a different blind spot here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @03:38PM
I think the article is talking about the A pillar, the one on either side of the windshield. The convex mirror does a good job with the B pillar, the one behind the drivers door. Then there's the C pillar at the back, again a convex mirror helps.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 03 2019, @08:06AM
I'll point out that those convex mirrors take getting used to. And, the little ones most likely to be used on personal vehicles are especially hard to see things in. The big ones on commercial vehicles have pretty good value, but no one is going to hang those things on the family car. With some imaginative positioning, you MIGHT eliminate some or all of the pillar blind spot, but you would be creating an all new blind spot wherever you hang those mirrors. Sorry, but no.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @11:11AM
I reorient my mirrors so it's pointing outwards and doesn't point to the rear corners of my vehicle. The reason is I never need to see my rear corners when I'm driving on the road. Having the mirrors oriented this way means I have no blind spots and I don't need to turn my neck further than the side mirrors. Now this mirror orientation becomes a problem whenever I need to do some parallel parking or reverse parking. Fortunately, this isn't a problem for vehicles with rear view cameras.
http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~gdguo/driving/BlindSpot.htm [wisc.edu]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @08:20AM (1 child)
Serious question, when have any pillars been a major problem?
Mirrors and head-checks for rear vision are meant to make this issue a non-issue? I know head-checks were a core of my driving training until convex mirrors and blindspot sensors became more common.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @01:08AM
It's not a major problem but a minor contributor to decreased vision. Having increased vision translates into greater situational awareness. This increase in vision means nothing when people drive so close behind other vehicles. It is common in America that people do not believe in maintaining a crash avoidance space in front of them.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Sunday November 03 2019, @08:21AM (3 children)
Hey, for people fussing about the colors and the wobbly projection: As an 8th grade science project, this is pretty awesome. Nice idea, good execution.
The pillars really are getting out of hand. They're not just structural - in some vehicles the front pillars also contain airbags [caranddriver.com]. Which you will need when you crash into something you couldn't see, because the damned pillar was blocking your view.
I was in a rented vehicle yesterday, and the interior rear view mirror was essentially useless. It wasn't (only) the fat rear pillars: three headrests across the back, and you could see basically nothing to the rear. I understand that headrests are important, but if you rarely carry rear passengers, maybe they could make the things fully retract into the seat back?
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday November 03 2019, @09:41AM
I, for one, questioned the color. It wasn't a complaint, so much as an honest question. The results would have been respectable for any adult - that a teenager did this is impressive. More time, more money, more research, she may have done a better job. But, as I have already observed, her results were better than Jaguar's offerings from several years ago.
Regarding those rear seat headrests, yes they can make them retractable. The ones in my Trailblazer must retract for the seats to fold down, for cargo. When I put the seats up, I just leave those headrests retracted. No one rides back there, and if they ever do, they can raise the headrests up if they want them.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Insightful) by darkfeline on Sunday November 03 2019, @09:44AM
99.9% of impressive kid's science projects are done by the parents. If she actually did it, then pretty cool. But forgive me if I think her parent built this so their kid gets a shiny item to put on her college application. The more likely scenario deserves derision not praise.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by danmars on Monday November 04 2019, @04:45PM
My car (Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross) does let you fully lower the rear headrests to the level of the top of the rear seat if they are not being used. The difficulties are the rear-seat passengers complaining/struggling when putting the headrests up, and failing to lower them back down.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Sunday November 03 2019, @10:47AM (2 children)
I'd rather have transparent pillars.
(Score: 2) by KritonK on Sunday November 03 2019, @02:51PM (1 child)
Now, there's a use for transparent aluminum, if it's ever invented!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 05 2019, @07:31AM
Well, ALON is pretty close but real expensive. It is also technically a ceramic, not a metal.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Username on Sunday November 03 2019, @12:23PM (1 child)
This is the first time seeing a story like this without feminist hyperbole. Usually it would be something like, "This girl overcame the odds and beatout oppressive males for the top prize, and this is HER story." It's kind of nice.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Sunday November 03 2019, @02:41PM
The green site ran the same story. And another one of a girl inventor. My bets would be on someone pushing agenda with the submissions anyway, despite them being decently worded. The really interesting part is that the submitter was named "soylent_yellow", which leads to the conclusion that even our tiny community is already being specifically targeted.
Not that I'd have any interesting news to submit to change that for the better, except maybe "Ask Soylent: How can nerds motivate themselves to do something useful instead of wasting time with forum posts on socio-political issues?"
All that said, hats off to the chick for any kind of interesting tinkering. And being really novel is about luck. Whenever you have that "Eureka!" moment, likely many others have had it before...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @02:16PM (2 children)
How Dare You! These thick blinding pillars have ruined my childhood, despite the fact I'm still a child, and that the side and rear pillars are the "real" blind spots. How Dare You! I shouldn't even be in this car right now, I should be on my iPhone watching Netflix or posting to TikTok. How Dare You!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday November 03 2019, @03:27PM (1 child)
What is it like to be so weak that an autistic teenager sends you into paroxysms of asspained ranting on the internet? Especially because she's correct? :)
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 04 2019, @01:15AM
Miss Greta isn't correct about her concern regarding climate change. Her knowledge comes from people who also don't know the details of what they say about climate change.
Prof. Richard Lindzen confirms that the climate alarm is based on bogus science - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UEx_XqT3rE [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 03 2019, @05:40PM
Nice work but this problem and lots of others are about to magically go away!
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/11/waymo-finally-let-a-reporter-ride-in-a-fully-driverless-car/ [arstechnica.com]
(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!