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Opel Eye - Anti-speeding Technology

Written by on June 29, 2008

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Opel is introducing a new safety technology that reads the traffic signs and displays them on your instrument panel in your car.

The Traffic Sign Detection can read speed limit and no-passing signs and even notify drivers when speed restrictions have been lifted. Depending on light conditions, the system begins to recognize and repeatedly read signs at 100 meters. If a picture matches an image of a road sign in the car's software, the sign is displayed in the instruments panel.

The system always displays the most relevant information for safe driving, filtering out many signs that may overwhelm drivers. If two signs are recognized in close proximity to one another, then special notice signs, like "no passing" restriction would take precedence over a speed limit sign.

Here is how it looks and works.

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Better usability

Although this is a very interesting technology, it is not the most usable implementation I have ever seen. A far better solution would be to incorporate it directly into the speedometer. This way you limit the time people have to read the instrument panel (which is very important), and it also allows the driver to see what his current speed is compared to the legal speed limit.

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Thomas Baekdal

Thomas Baekdal

Founder of Baekdal, author, writer, strategic consultant, and new media advocate.

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