At this year’s CES, Bosch is presenting a smart sun visor that is designed to provide ideal protection from blinding sunrays without obstructing the view of the road. Will the classic sun visor soon be obsolete?
Sun visors that are installed in cars today are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they reduce the blinding effect of low-lying sunlight and thus ensure that we don’t have to drive with our eyes narrowed and flying half-blind. On the other hand, they block the view of the road itself, which is anything but optimal. Automotive supplier Bosch is now presenting a possible solution: The smart sun visor presented at CES ultimately turns out to be a transparent display that (indirectly) automatically detects sunlight and then darkens. So the new sun visor basically functions like sunglasses that are automatically put on when there is a risk of glare.
However, as already indicated, solar radiation is not detected directly. The sun visor is equipped with a camera that permanently monitors the face of the person driving. As soon as mimic conspicuous features appear which indicate that the person is blinded, this is reported to the sun visor, which then darkens. The darkening should only affect the actually affected areas of the screen and not the entire display – these areas should also be detected by the camera that fixes the face. The automatic detection of the face distortion and the affected display areas is made possible by algorithms that work with artificial intelligence. The algorithm thus learns from the behavior of the person driving and will be able to behave more and more skilfully over time.
According to Bosch, the development is not yet ready for the market. Nevertheless, Bosch is already working with other manufacturers on its implementation.
