Source: Ford

Beautiful scenery can make a long car trip much more enjoyable, but the visual majesty of the mountain ranges or coastlines are not available to blind passengers. Ford has devised technology to bring scenic cues to the visually impaired with a prototype smart car window that will allow blind people to “feel the view."

The technology allows blind passengers to experience passing scenery through touch. The Feel The View system is installed above a passenger window, and a camera captures the scenery when the user pushes a textured button. The picture is then converted into a high contrast monochrome image and reproduced on the glass using LEDs. Different shades of grey vibrate with a range of 255 intensities as the image is touched, helping passengers to imagine the landscape in front of them.

The system was developed by Ford Italia and GTB Roma in collaboration with Aedo.