Gibson’s hack, which he shared on YouTube, uses a Kinect camera installed within the rear bumper of a car, which then feeds live video to the driver via the dashboard. The Kinect serves as an extra set of “eyes” to help the driver back up the car without hitting something (or someone).
Many modern cars, such as the Nissan Juke and 2012 Ford Focus, already have similar “reverse parking assist” features built in, but Gibson’s hack differs in that it can display the video feed in various forms. It can display a rear view in full color, infrared, and a birds-eye mode. Not only that but this hack could technically work on any vehicle, bringing modern car-technology to any car, new or old, without the premium add-on pricetag.
Check out the hack in action:
Gibson noted that the hack, made possible thanks to a combination of Ubuntu, OpenCV and Libfreenect, could make its way to Android. The possible Android port would bring the live video feed to a countless amount of handsets and essentially opening up this hack to many more people–mainly those without screens in their car dashboard.
[YouTube and Next at Microsoft via Ubergizmo]
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