This Technology Eliminates The Blind Spot Of Your Car

A 14-year-old girl has come up with a way of eliminating a car’s blind spot caused by the thick pillars on the side of the windshield on the car, using some cheap, existing technology found in electronics stores.

In fact, Alaina Gassler is too young to get a driver’s license and she has never gone through the frustration when trying to see what’s behind the pillars, but that couldn’t stop her from addressing the problem.

In her solution, the girl installs a webcam facing outward on the outside of a windshield pillar on the car, then projects live footage from that camera on the pillar’s inside. With custom 3D-printed parts, the girl could align the projected perfectly to make it blend seamlessly with what the driver sees through the windshield and the passenger window, which makes the pillar invisible.

The girl worked on this invention under the “Improving Automobile Safety by Removing Blind Spots” project. With her creation, Gassler got earned the Samueli Foundation Prized,  which was worth $25,000.

Though the invention is not ready to put into common use yet, when it does, it’s safe to say that we will have what’s required for implementing the technology in cars. You can install short-throw projectors on the windshield pillar on the passenger side to generate the image while not worrying that the passenger would block the beam.

Meanwhile, lots of cars have already ditched the side mirrors for cameras, or they have near-invisible cameras mounted on the front for backing up. Therefore, another camera added on the pillar’s side would increase the safety measure.

And if this invention really goes into real life, it will add more cost to your car, but it will soon become more affordable as more and more people adopt the technology.