Safe eyes save lives: How Bosch engineers are innovating the 95-year-old sun visor
Farmington Hills, Michigan – Bosch is rethinking driver safety and comfort, bringing one of the most overlooked interior components into the spotlight, the sun visor. The sun causes twice as many car accidents as any other weather-related condition due to temporary blindness.
"For most drivers around the world, the visor component as we know it is not enough to avoid hazardous sun glare – especially at dawn and dusk when the sun can greatly decrease drivers' vision."
Bosch is offering a solution with the revolutionary Virtual Visor, a transparent LCD and intuitive camera, which replaces the traditional vehicle sun visor completely. As the first reimagined visor in nearly a century, Bosch's technology utilizes intelligent algorithms to intuitively block the sun's glare and not the view of the road ahead.
"For most drivers around the world, the visor component as we know it is not enough to avoid hazardous sun glare – especially at dawn and dusk when the sun can greatly decrease drivers' vision," said Dr. Steffen Berns, president of Bosch Car Multimedia. "Some of the simplest innovations make the greatest impact, and Virtual Visor changes the way drivers see the road."
The Virtual Visor, which was honored as a Best of Innovation in the CES 2020 Innovation Awards, will debut at CES 2020 in Las Vegas. The Virtual Visor was also named as an honoree in the awards competition, which recognizes products across 28 categories. Virtual Visor received the Best of Innovation for the In-Vehicle Entertainment & Safety category, as it received the highest ratings from a panel of judges that includes designers, engineers and members of the tech media.
A sun visor fit for the future
Virtual Visor links an LCD panel with a driver or occupant-monitoring camera to track the sun's casted shadow on the driver's face. The system uses artificial intelligence to locate the driver within the image from the driver-facing camera. It also utilizes AI to determine the landmarks on the face ‒ including where the eyes, nose and mouth are located ‒ so that it can identify shadows on the face. The algorithm analyzes the driver's view, darkening only the section of the display through which light hits the driver's eyes. The rest of the display remains transparent, no longer obscuring a large section of the driver's field of vision.
"We discovered early in the development that users adjust their traditional sun visors to always cast a shadow on their own eyes," said Jason Zink, technical expert for Bosch in North America and one of the co-creators of the Virtual Visor. "This realization was profound in helping simplify the product concept and fuel the design of the technology."
The creative use of liquid crystal technology to block a specific light source decreases dangerous sun glare, driver discomfort and accident risk; it also increases driver visibility, comfort and safety.
Innovation from the recycling bin
From the original ideation and concept phase to testing and prototyping, Virtual Visor is a bottom-up solution made possible through the innovation culture established at Bosch. Employees are encouraged to apply lean startup methodologies to confirm customer benefits, market potential and feasibility for new ideas, which are then validated by peers and approved for development.
"We've built a culture around empowering our associates by putting them in the driver's seat," said Mike Mansuetti, president of Bosch in North America. The Virtual Visor was developed by a team in North America as part of Bosch internal innovation activities. "As a leading global technology provider, we understand that innovation can come from any level of an organization, and we want to see that grow."
守护眼睛的安全就是守护生命：博世工程師正在改造95年悠久历史的遮阳板
博世新型虚拟遮阳板將大幅提升驾驶的安全性与舒适性
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刺眼的阳光每年都造成数千起的汽车事故，几乎是其他天候状况的两倍。
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虚拟遮阳板的特色包括单片透明的液晶荧幕、镜头对着驾驶的人工智慧脸部识别摄影机，以及分析与追踪软体。
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Steffen Berns博士：「简单的创新就能带来深远的影响，虚拟遮阳板將改变驾驶观察路况的方式。」
"对于世界各地的大多数驾驶员来说，我们所知道的遮阳板组件不足以避免危险的太阳眩光——尤其是在黎明和黄昏时，太阳会大大降低驾驶员的视力。"
博世提供的解决方案采用革命性的虚拟遮阳板、透明 LCD 和直观的摄像头，完全取代了传统的汽车遮阳板。作为近一个世纪以来第一款重新设计的遮阳板，博世的技术利用智能算法直观地阻挡太阳眩光，而不是前方道路的视野。
博世汽车总裁 Steffen Berns 博士说："对于世界各地的大多数驾驶员来说，我们所知道的遮阳板组件不足以避免有害的太阳眩光——尤其是在黎明和黄昏时，太阳会大大降低驾驶员的视力。"多媒体。"一些最简单的创新产生了最大的影响，而 Virtual Visor 改变了驾驶员看待道路的方式。"
在 CES 2020 创新奖中荣获最佳创新奖的 Virtual Visor 将在拉斯维加斯的 CES 2020 上首次亮相。Virtual Visor 还被评为奖项竞赛的获奖者，该竞赛表彰了 28 个类别的产品。Virtual Visor 获得了车载娱乐和安全类别的最佳创新奖，因为它获得了包括设计师、工程师和技术媒体成员在内的评审团的最高评价。
适合未来的遮阳板
Virtual Visor 将 LCD 面板与驾驶员或乘客监控摄像头连接起来，以跟踪太阳在驾驶员脸上的投射阴影。该系统使用人工智能在面向驾驶员的摄像头的图像中定位驾驶员。它还利用人工智能来确定脸上的地标——包括眼睛、鼻子和嘴巴的位置——以便识别脸上的阴影。该算法分析驾驶员的视野，仅使光线照射到驾驶员眼睛的显示屏部分变暗。显示屏的其余部分保持透明，不再遮挡驾驶员的大部分视野。
"我们在开发的早期就发现，用户调整他们的传统遮阳板总是在自己的眼睛上投下阴影，"博世北美技术专家、Virtual Visor 的共同创造者之一 Jason Zink 说。"这种认识在帮助简化产品概念和推动技术设计方面意义重大。"
创造性地使用液晶技术阻挡特定光源，减少危险的太阳眩光、驾驶员不适和事故风险；它还提高了驾驶员的视野、舒适性和安全性。
回收箱的创新
从最初的构思和概念阶段到测试和原型制作，Virtual Visor 是一个自下而上的解决方案，通过博世建立的创新文化成为可能。鼓励员工应用精益创业方法来确认客户利益、市场潜力和新想法的可行性，然后由同行验证并批准开发。
博世北美总裁迈克·曼苏蒂 (Mike Mansuetti) 说："我们通过让员工坐在驾驶座上来建立一种赋予员工权力的文化。" 作为博世内部创新活动的一部分，Virtual Visor 由北美的一个团队开发。"作为全球领先的技术提供商，我们明白创新可以来自组织的任何层面，我们希望看到这种增长。"
虚拟遮阳板的构想是由Zink领导的团队所开发出来，成员为三位动力系统工程师。他们利用自己的闲暇时间制造原型，以争取公司内部专案经费资助。
Zink说："正如同许多初期阶段的构想一样，我们的资本与资源十分有限。我们最初用来试验这个概念的原型是利用回收的旧型LCD荧幕制造的。"
寻求经费支援与开发其他产品版本时，博世的主管们给予研发团队许多协助与建议，最后该产品由博世汽车多媒体事业部接手经营。
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