Toyota brings augmented reality to car windows

The Japanese manufacturer Toyota has created the prototype 'A window to the world', what, thanks to the use of augmented reality, transforms the vehicle's windows into an interactive interface that provides information about places of interest and can also be used as a canvas to draw and interact with the environment.

Toyota's Kansei1 Motor Europe design department, together with the Copenhagen Interactive Design Institute (SAND), have created 'A window to the world', a prototype of an interactive window for cars that promises to end passenger boredom.

It is a display that uses augmented reality to interact with the landscape. The window becomes a transparent touch screen that allows you to zoom in, move or hear the name or sound made by an object passing by. The passenger can use their fingers to manipulate the image.

For now, Toyota and the IDRC have incorporated five functions into the invention. The first is the so-called “Drawing in motion”. The passenger can draw an object with his fingers and, as the real world image progresses, the traced image moves until it disappears.

Another possibility is zoom. The passenger can use their fingers to outline and then create a magnified image of the real-world object. A third application is to identify the object, both sonically and visually, by spelling or pronouncing their names.

On the other hand, it can also measure and display the distance between the car and the object.. And finally, The prototype incorporates the so-called “Virtual Constellation”, which would use the car's sunroof at night to display information about the stars in the sky.

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