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Almost all of my time behind the wheel has been in a small, two-seat convertible. This has really spoiled me, in that whenever I find myself in the driver’s seat of a fixed-top, full-sized car, I can’t help but wish for better visibility because of how many lines of sight get cut off by the car’s structure itself.

A team of Japanese researchers has solved this problem, though, with a clever system that allows the driver to see right through a car’s side panels and back seat.

The Tachi Lab and Inami Laboratory are both attached to the graduate school of Keio University. The two groups are focused on virtual reality, robotics, and telexistence.

Tachi Lab describes the last field as being a way to make people feel ubiquitous, as though they’re everywhere at once. We’re not so sure if the results of their automotive project qualifies as “everywhere,” but it certainly does make it seem like you’re both inside and outside your car at the same time.

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To achieve the amazing effect, cameras are mounted on the outside of the car. The footage passes through an onboard computer on its way to a projector pointed towards the car’s ceiling.

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From there, the image is reflected onto a screen, allowing the driver to see what’s being physically obscured by the car.

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Because the images are projected onto the backseat, instead of being displayed by a monitor mounted there, the system retains its functionality even if someone if sitting behind the driver, although this does cause some distortion. Still, it’s an impressive bit of technology that’s a lot more advanced, not to mention less resource-intensive, than anything we expected to have in our cars at this point in time.

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Related: Tachi Lab, Inami Laboratory
Source: Kotaro 296
Images: YouTube