Dec 18 2007Virtual Cable Navagation Systems Is Neat
Making Virtual Solid is a New Jersey company working on a product called Virtual Cable. It's a car navigation system that uses "a laser, a set of lenses, and a moving mirror mounted in the dashboard to project a 3D route-guidance line above the road ahead, as though it's actually out in front of the driver." Pretty freaking neat. It's like your car is following a red line from heaven. And hopefully that line leads straight to a seedy strip-joint, because, well, that's where I want to go. The company says the system will "cost somewhere around $400 as a factory-installed option, and can be easily interfaced with existing GPS systems."
This is the technology of the future people. I'm tired of my old screen-based GPS navigation system. It's like playing a video game -- a very un-fun video game where the object is getting to your grandmother's house for Christmas. Despite my best efforts to liven up the gameplay by running over a few street vendors, it was still lame.
Three video mock-ups of what it'll be like after the speedbump. Note: This means they're not real, just what the system will look like.
Virtual Cable nav system superimposes route guidance on your windshield in 3D [engadget]
Reader Comments
1. WOOO - December 18, 2007 4:58 PM
FRIST!!
This is stuipd
2. Cam - December 18, 2007 4:58 PM
FIRST
that's a cool concept
3. Morono - December 18, 2007 4:58 PM
looks cool though
4. The Moat - December 18, 2007 5:08 PM
FOURTH!
In reality, this IS cool. It's yelling "firsties" that's stupid.
5. Ashninja - December 18, 2007 5:19 PM
The Future has Arrived
6. BlighedArt - December 18, 2007 5:36 PM
I was hoping that one of the videos would show the guidance line slowly veering off to the oncoming traffic side of the road.
7. Jab - December 18, 2007 5:37 PM
Dammit, I had the same idea.
It looks like the driver wasn't going to make those turns though.
8. Masterless - December 18, 2007 5:41 PM
Why does this scare me? Is it because it would cause more car accidents than drunk old people trying to get head while on the highway? Or is it because when Im driving home buzzed im gonna steer right into someones driveway and tell the cops it was Virtual Cables fault. Either way its a bad scene.
No sir. This will never be approved for use in the States. We need to get rid of those old bastards who cant drive for shit first.
9. Felipe - December 18, 2007 7:36 PM
¿Fake?
10. Paz42 - December 18, 2007 9:46 PM
Ok I am now sure with this GPS and the new BMW (i think it was a BMW) but ye only a matter of time now til cars can drive themselves and then its only a matter of time until the robots take over
11. Michael Browb - December 18, 2007 10:31 PM
That's great and all, but video mockups? What are we giving our ideas away now so that 100 people can copy it before you even have your first prototype? Sounds like a school project.
12. Fred - December 19, 2007 5:37 AM
The scale is too large to be useful and did you notice that when the turn came up that the road ahead disapeared? this would scare the hell out of me at night. i could see it being very easy to get confused by this and do something stupid.
13. Ra - December 19, 2007 6:26 AM
Esto es para ir muy despacio por q no te da tiempo a verlo
a 120 no creo q se pueda utilizar
14. Leyden - December 19, 2007 6:38 AM
Falta mas estuido y prevision de giros. habra que añadir avisos de radar gasolineras, etc...
15. guate6 - December 19, 2007 8:57 AM
Damn, none of the videos are available...I don't really know...it seems cool, but I don't know if the pros would outweigh the cons.
16. zxczxcz - December 19, 2007 9:35 AM
fake
17. not a scientist, but I play one on tv - December 19, 2007 10:16 AM
fake? really? just because you're too stupid to have thought of it, or to even have a clue as to how it might be implemented, it must be fake, right? wow, I suppose if you around back in Edison's day, you would have claimed that his lightbulb was a fake.
it uses a "volumetric display system", which was first patented in 2002.
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6377229.PN.&OS=PN/6377229&RS=PN/6377229
As with most new things, the concepts and working models have usually been around for sometime, but they can't be mass produced yet at a reasonable price, and made to fit where they're wanted (if the device needs to be towed behind your car in it's own trailer and costs $50,000, there's no point in producing it).
http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/350/C14103/
18. Scatze - December 19, 2007 11:45 AM
Holy crap that's a lot of writing just to get a patent. My patent idea of self wiping underware will just have to wait for my Hooked on Phonics order to arrive.
19. david - December 19, 2007 12:35 PM
lo que si que mola son las tias
20. eha - December 19, 2007 5:53 PM
FAKE
21. Amy - December 19, 2007 6:06 PM
So "fake" has come to be defined as "an utterance made by a plebian when existing technology escapes their feeble minds"?
22. Vahn - December 19, 2007 7:52 PM
That's terrifying, and the fact that the line is in the air as opposed to ground or eye level would just add to the distractions of teenage drivers who mug their parents for money for crap.
23. k s erekiere k¿? - December 19, 2007 8:45 PM
k decis aver muy despacio?¿¿?
pos la pantalla de un gps o e smuy grnade eee pero igual tiene aviso por voz o algo asi komo los gps k no aivaaaaaaaaaaa
aver si epnsamos mas
de todas formas pos no me lo termino yo de kreer esto eee
24. not a scientist, but I play one on tv - December 20, 2007 9:40 AM
@21 - great definition.
after this "fake" issue, I posted the comment "fake" for the snowball maker. Those people hit the roof, all explaining how it's clearly not fake, and they've seen one before, and some even own one.
25. Amy - December 20, 2007 12:55 PM
Nice one #24
26. Amy - December 20, 2007 12:56 PM
And this is a lot safer than having my aunt try to squint at her gps thingie located in the lower part of the dash while trying to steer her massive Cayenne. At least this directs you to stare out onto the road.
27. Anabel - December 22, 2007 10:47 AM
este es de un gps nuevo q puede q pronto salga al mercado,seria un punto ¿q no?
28. elhombreverde - December 25, 2007 10:10 PM
Mola! hace ya tiempo que esto existe... en los video-juegos tipo NFS.
Si además te sale la velocidad de los coches de delante ya es para flipar, je, je, je...
Ojalá fuese verdad, pero me parece a mi que esto es un FAKE de los bastante currados.
29. remy - January 23, 2008 7:45 AM
hi iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
30. Perdido - January 23, 2008 1:14 PM
En video es algo diferente, pero habria que probarlo, quizas te estamparias contra lo 1º que pilles.
31. matt - January 10, 2009 9:36 PM
It might look cool and all, but this is not practical, this would make driving alot harder since you would have to focus on this thing and watch the actual road. Think about it. the next turn would come up too quick for you to realize. Hopefully they prove me wrong, but anyways theres no way im spending $400 on something thats gonna sit ontop of my car.
32. fnar - September 22, 2009 2:16 PM
LAST!