LONDON, England – Smart Window enables blind or semi-sighted people to visualise everything from rolling hills to mountain ranges, views make any road trip memorable, which for blind passengers had until now been missed.
A still-in-development prototype will enable blind or partially-sighted people to visualise passing scenery through touch.
Feel The View takes pictures that are developed as high-contrast monochrome images which are then reproduced on the glass using special diode lights.
WATCH A VIDEO of the ‘sight’ effects here.
The visually impaired can touch the image and the various greys will, as they are touched, vibrate with a range of 255 intensities to let fingertips that touch the scene and rebuild in their mind the landscape in front or around them.
Feel The View was conceived and developed by Ford Italy and GTB Roma in collaboration with Aedo, an Italian start-up that specialises in devices for the visually impaired.
READ MORE Ford features on Carman’s Corner here
Kuda Takura, a Ford SA spokesperson, told The Corner: “We seek to make people’s lives better and this was a fantastic opportunity to help blind passengers experience a great aspect of driving.
“The technology is advanced, the concept simple, “but it could turn mundane journeys truly memorable.”
The technology is for now, an early prototype, with no current plans for production.
