What They Say
At CES, Panasonic Automotive showed version 2.0 of its AR HUD that includes an eye-tracking system that identifies the individual driver’s height and head movement behind the wheel and dynamically adjusts and compensates the images in the “eyebox.” Drivers are constantly shifting their head and changing their line of sight, but with parallax alignment and dynamic autofocus working together, Panasonic states that its system will mean that drivers will only see accurately positioned, high-resolution overlays and icons.
The HUD Is based on a DLP enging and the software provides 3D AR overlays, icons, and mapping. Simulated 3D using a tilted, dual image plane is provided to give a sense of 3D at the cost of 2D.
The company’s patented, newly updated eye tracking (ETS) enables:
- Automatic driver height adjustment;
- Parallax compensation (to properly align AR icons in a driver’s optical path);
- Dynamic auto focus (to account for shifting driver eyebox positioning); and
- Driver monitoring capability (to identify and monitor a driver’s state).
By placing the IR camera within the AR HUD, Panasonic states that it eliminates the need to package a standalone driver monitoring camera. The IR camera also supports driver identification and other driver monitoring features like detecting drowsiness, impairment, and distraction.
What We Think
I’m very pleased to add another article to my collection tagged with ‘Gaze Recognition’, a topic that I have believed is really important for a long time. I first tried a demo by Tobii at CeBIT (remember that event?) in 2007 and I quickly became convinced that it was important. Eventually, but not soon, the technology could be in almost every display designed for small numbers of viewers. Why pour light and energy in every direction when you only need to direct the photons into the viewer’s eye? Also, if you know where I’m looking, you know a lot about what I’m interested in. (which explains the adoption of the technology for research by the advertising industry many years ago). (BR)
