(Virtual Windshield)
We've all been there - driving down the highway, stuck behind a coach bus, a dump truck, a semi, the list goes on. The large vehicle in front of you is travelling under the speed limit, you can't see around it, and thus can't determine whether or not it's safe to pull out and overtake.
A team at the University of Porto in Portugal has found a way around this problem, however, with what they're calling the "See-Through System," or STS. Using a system of cameras, screens, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication, STS works by projecting a small image onto your windshield of what the vehicle in front of you is seeing.
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Each car has a camera and a transparent LCD screen on the windshield, like a heads-up display, and can communicate images to the car behind it. Even though you can't see around the slow-moving coach bus full of tourists or elderly people heading to the casino, STS can still give you the ability to safely maneuver past.
The STS system has been tested in both a simulator and live on the road, and was presented earlier in October at The International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality in Australia. Check out the video below to see how it works.