Driving Beyond Reality: The Hologram – A Big Name for the Future

Monday 6 December 2021

Leadership behind reality
Holographic Hologram – a huge name for the future

Traveling in the not-too-distant future will not only be electric, but also bring to the car a virtual world that was hitherto unknown. A Swiss company has now introduced a concept car called the Holograktor, which demonstrates the inner workings of the car of tomorrow.

Many people probably feel the same way as the author of these lines: A meandering, winding drive in the back seat of a fully occupied car is a real horror journey. The view sometimes comes out of the side window, sometimes on the toes of your shoes, sometimes toward the front seat headrests – and your thoughts wander into the plastic bag under the seat. In the more than 120 years of car development, no one has thought of anything powerful against travel sickness.

But Vitaly Ponomarev has a cure: the throne in holograms. That’s the name of the 4.40-meter battery-powered concept car that the founder of Swiss company WayRay is introducing on November. The royal booths are slightly raised behind two widely spaced front seats. A clear view of the road and the horizon – a remedy for the stomach. But a stereo can do a lot.

Because WayRay is not a classic automotive supplier, but a software and hardware developer in matters of augmented reality, that is, the display of virtual screens in a real environment. Many car owners are familiar with this from the head-up displays, sometimes on a narrow folding window above the steering wheel, and sometimes on a film projected onto the windshield in the driver’s field of view. With tapered overlays, the navigation arrows of the latest systems simulate a three-dimensional perspective hovering two to seven meters in front of the vehicle on the road. The current largest Mercedes S-Class profile requires about 20 liters of space for the complex technology.

Objects become 3D

Ponomarev laid out a clear projection surface in the stereoscope, which is twice the size of the surface in a Benz with a third of the area required. It folds into the field of view in front of said throne – and provides access to a whole new world. Because it’s not just one picture that’s beamed to the surface. Using holographic technology, objects can be viewed in three dimensions at any distance around the vehicle and moved with it – exactly where they should belong in the real world.

This can be the classic navigation arrow, but it also points to sights along the way, to restaurants or shops and even to moving games. Passengers have built-in joysticks to the left and right of the seat, such as the Xbox or Nintendo. This allows you to control objects around the vehicle while driving. “But it will also be possible, for example, to show a 3D phone call with a friend on a level in front of the car – the front passenger can then talk to the remote caller as in a real meeting,” Ponomarev said.

When facts merge

The new form of communication is made possible by a special laminated film patented by WayRay. Produced by Covestro, the windshield supplier in Leverkusen – and generates the hologram provided by a laser beam of light based on information from the software.

On the throne, for example, other travelers can actually steer the car — which is good for your gut feeling. Or he’s playing a game that appears almost in real life in his field of vision. Until now, this has only been possible with huge virtual reality goggles; However, the real environment is still outside. In a stereomicroscope, on the other hand, the artificial and real environment merge seamlessly so that the mouth is initially open. However, the driver gets used to the fact that a dog or a cyclist in front of him at a distance of 100 meters is marked with a yellow warning sign, where exactly to turn; Or that information about a cheap charging station is on the horizon long before the motorway exit. Then the car automatically takes the road there by voice command.

Income while driving

In the future, automakers want to use this and similar content to generate extra income while driving — or to reduce boredom for travelers. This will soon apply to everyone in the car, for example, thanks to highly automated assistants, no one has to constantly monitor traffic on long stretches of the highway. Orients the computer – and the traveler communicates with the image of the computer in front of his window. A high-performance computer under the dashboard processes data from sensors, cameras, and map information in order to accurately calculate the vehicle’s position and create virtual objects in real time.

“The technology is now available and ready for mass production,” Ponomarev promises. However, at first, wealthy buyers of luxury cars are likely only to enjoy virtual worlds. According to the developer, there is a lot of interest from premium manufacturers from Europe, the United States and China. Lawmakers are likely to pose another hurdle: Some apps in the driver’s seat will be banned in particular for a long time — until the steering wheel is completely phased out at some point. And virtual reality travel will likely be normal for a long time. And every new car is an anthropomorphic piece.