Augmented Driving on your iPhone

For you experienced developers, the first question you’ll be asking is, “how are they going to do a car HUD without video access on the iPhone.”  So I’ll answer that question first.

Currently, video recording is not yet supported. However, the system takes snapshots of the screen at different intervals. The standard interval is set to about 10 seconds. If one vehicle is tracked this interval is reduced to 5 seconds. If a vehicle is close ahead or more than one vehicle is tracked, a snapshot is taken every 2 seconds.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk features on this new product from imaGinyze (though technically, its only submitted to the App Store and not yet out for purchase.)

The app does a pretty good job of tracking the lane you’re in, speeds, and distance to other cars.   And it switches between units easily for which ever side of the pond you’re on.  The app provides additional safety features giving you a lane switch warning, though if it switches between the 10 second frame interval then its not going to work so well.  Yet another reason Apple needs to give up the goods on the video access.

The functionality of the app shows what the GM windshield might do to improve the safety of its vehicles.  Though I really wish it would give that “Vehicle Ahead” warning to the a-hole tailgating me on the open highway and not to me.

More information:

Augmented Driving for your iPhone 3GS including the following features:

– Dynamic augmented reality overlays for lanes and vehicles
– Head-up display (HUD) for system and status information
– Lane detection and lane change warning
– Vehicle detection and low distance information
– System auto-calibration for easy setup
– Many configuration options and quick manual

The system is designed to work in good lighting conditions during daytime for visible lane markings on highways and country roads and for detection of regular cars. For operation, a fix mount is required.

6 Responses

  1. […] swfobject.embedSWF("http://www.youtube.com/v/8kn37kvGpHQ&rel=0&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=0", "vvq-174-youtube-1", "425", "344", "9", vvqexpressinstall, vvqflashvars, vvqparams, vvqattributes); […]

  2. Nice work, crippled by Apple.
    The iPhone is like the Internet Explorer of phones.
    You have to support it due to its market share, but you spend a lot of time working around its limitations.

  3. […] is er ook gewoon een poor man’s oplossing, namelijk gewoon met je iPhone. Even de applicatie Imaginyze calibreren en […]

  4. Nice work, and I have a question.

    Screenshots also contains the overlaid things, such as numbers and a rectangle indicating a vehicle. Then, how the vehicle in front of the car is continuously detected ??

  5. Once they have the position of the car, relative to the iPhone, unless the other car swerves quickly, I would think it can “estimate” its location. Just a guess, though.

  6. First of all this is a cool app. But the technology needs to be implemented in the right way. If you don’t know what lane you are in or supposed to be in or how far the car ahead is you shouldn’t be driving in the first place.

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