GM researches high-tech windshields to aid vision

WARREN, Mich. - When Coke bottle glasses just won’t cut it for safe driving, a futuristic windshield might do the trick.

General Motors researchers are working on a windshield that combines lasers, infrared sensors and a camera to take what’s happening on the road and enhance it, so aging drivers with vision problems are able to see a little more clearly.

Though it’s only in the research stage now, the technology soon will be more useful than ever. The 65-and-older population in the U.S. will nearly double in about 20 years, meaning more people will be struggling to see the road like they used to.

GM’s new windshield won’t improve their vision, but it will make objects stand out that could otherwise go unnoticed by an aged eye.

At the same time, the developers say the technology won’t cause drivers to plow into trees. It is enhancing just a few objects that are already in a driver’s view, not splashing distracting information onto the glass.

For example, during a foggy drive, a laser projects a blue line onto the windshield that follows the edge of the road. Or if infrared sensors detect a person or animal in the driver’s path during a night drive, its outline is projected on the windshield to highlight its location.

It’s possible because of a transparent coating on the windshield that lights up when struck by ultraviolet light.

Of course, much more goes into it than that. Sensors have to determine the position of the car in relation to the road, while other devices track the driver’s head and eye movement to make sure the image on the windshield isn’t skewed.

The technological issues mean it probably will be a while before the view through the windshield of a Buick looks anything like a pilot’s head-up display in an F-16.

“You can see the difficulty of implementing technology like this,” GM researcher Thomas Seder said in a recent interview.

It’s also been a bit of a struggle to get skeptics to see how helpful the windshield could be, he said.

“They say, 'That would be very frustrating or confusing, to have things on my windshield. I need to see the world,’ ” Seder said. “I’m enhancing the world. I’ll take a feature that should be important to you, like the edge of the road, and paint a line over the real edge.”

The windshield is designed specifically for older drivers, who have vision problems at a much higher rate than other age groups.

Currently, 12.4 percent of the population is 65 or older, but by 2030, that percentage is projected to jump to 20 percent, or 71.5 million people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“They’re not only the fastest-growing group of drivers on the road in the U.S., but they are driving more miles per year than previous generations,” said Cynthia Owsley, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Alabama — Birmingham. “This has enormous implications for road safety in our country,” said Owsley, who has worked with Seder on the high-tech windshield’s design.

Some cars already feature head-down displays, small screens in the dashboard that show an enhanced view of what is in front of the car.

Head-up displays, so called because a driver doesn’t have to look down to see the information, also are available.

But the technology is limited — the head-up display in a Cadillac STS features information such as the speed or radio station projected onto a small area of the windshield.

Seder’s system seeks to solve at least one problem with a normal head-up display — it can be seen only if the driver’s head is in a certain position.

“What’s novel here is it’s the entire windshield — no little headbox I have to have my head in. Here, you can see the image from any position,” Seder said.