Projection System and Nanomaterials Create New Driving Aids

August 1, 2010

Drivers with poor eyesight may soon have technology in automobiles that will help them see a road’s edges or possible hazards more clearly, and shop owners may be able to display colorful images onto their storefront windows because of a projection system innovation.

The system, developed by SuperImaging (Fremont, CA), employs a specialized projector that directs invisible light onto glass that has been infused with nanomaterials, which convert the wavelengths of invisible light into visible wavelengths, causing them to glow in every direction, creating an image.

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) originally funded Super-Imaging (previously known as LS Technologies) through a 2004 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to develop a high-performance image projector that would create simulations to test sensors as well as guidance, tracking, and navigation systems.

Today, the company continues to fine-tune its product while pursuing commercial applications in the automotive and marketing industries. Its most developed product, which it calls TransPlay™, has been licensed by General Motors. The car manufacturer took SuperImaging’s product and added its own software to develop a smart windshield that displays road markings similar to the projected first-down yellow lines seen when watching televised football games.

Similarly, the military could use the same technology in its tanks, trucks, helicopters, and jets to help pilots and drivers avoid obstacles when environmental conditions create low visibility.

TransPlay also has an application in directional signage, much like with GPS devices. Blinking arrows appear on the windshield, telling drivers where to turn or to go straight. While the technology has an advantage over GPS navigation aids in that images are displayed on the windshield as opposed to in a small device outside the driver’s field of vision, company officials do not anticipate the application to replace GPS products for a year or two because SuperImaging’s technology displays only in one color and without depicting the driver’s position on a map.

How it Works

The company claims that its approach, named MediaGlass™, can generate images that glow three times as bright as competing heads-up-display technologies. And, compared with similar technologies, the SuperImaging projector can be placed three times farther away from the glass, allowing engineers more flexibility in how retail window displays are designed.

An additional key discriminator of the technology is its viewability. In reflected heads-up displays, a viewer must be located at a certain angle to see an image displayed on a screen. With MediaGlass, however, a viewer can see the image from a broader angle because the light from the glass emits in 360 degrees.

The technology also could provide higher-contrast images to the home entertainment industry. On typical home entertainment screens, black spaces are really just the screen’s surface without any projected light reflected onto it. In contrast, SuperImaging’s system could make a black screen glow in any color because the wavelength would be converted on the screen.

Where it Stands

The company believes its greatest commercialization potential lies in the retail signage market. Company developers envision a final product that will allow shop owners, for example, to display large three-color advertisements, up to three meters square in size, on their storefront windows, or on display cases, such as in jewelry stores.

SuperImaging currently offers a one-color (blue) commercial signage system, and company leaders plan to release a two-color version (with green) this year. For a third color — red — to be displayed on glass, the projector’s laser diodes need to emit a certain wavelength, but those diodes are not on the market yet because they are expensive to manufacture. The company is looking for a partner that could help them in that regard, and hopes to have that color available in 2011.

More Information

For more information on SuperImaging’s projector technology, visit http://info.hotims.com/28056-517  . (Source: Dale McGeehon/ NTTC; MDA TechUpdate, Missile Defense Agency, National Technology Transfer Center Washington Operations)

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