The British automaker that belongs to the luxury German marquee BMW, MINI, has made it clear to the public that it is preparing a new technology that it will introduce at the upcoming Shanghai Motor Show event of 2015. This new technology from the British automaker will be known simply and appropriately as the Augmented Vision.
What makes this new technology very interesting is that it has been developed by the luxury British marquee together with a number of companies that belong to Qualcomm. In case you are not quite familiar with Qualcomm just yet, it is a company that is very well known for its chip, the Snapdragon CPU chip, that is used on most, if not all, mobile devices these days, especially the ones running the Google’s Android OS.
With the Augmented Vision technology, future MINI-branded vehicles will be able to project driving information at the eye level of the driver by means of high-tech glasses. After all, the technology is basically made up of those high-tech glasses and the information is actually projected onto the lens of those glasses.
MINI is not really willing to reveal too much in respect of the aforementioned technology just yet. Nonetheless, the company claims that its upcoming technology will practically function as a heads-up display as well as navigation data displaying arrows to indicate which way the driver should go next. In addition, the technology also supports notification for incoming messages. And, what makes the Augmented Vision technology from MINI and Qualcomm even more appealing is its X-Ray mode. With this mode enabled, driver will be able to see what lies behind A-pillars and doors. It’s truly appealing, isn’t it?! An augmented parking function will also be made available. This function will use the side mirror on the front passenger side to project images onto the glasses, making it easier for the driver to measure the distance from the curb.
Speaking of this technology in particular, Jay Wright, the Vice President of Qualcomm Connected Experiences, claims that the company is proud to have been a part of such an augmented reality interface that exists between automobile and eyewear. Wright also adds that the technology showcases an excellent example of what technology can achieve these days and what people can expect in the years to come.
