A gadget has been created to help motorists communicate their angst toward other drivers without using the ubiquitous hand gesture. But you might want to watch what you say because you never know who is in the other car.
Singh rigged up a 40-by-16 LED matrix display that he says doesn’t obstruct a driver’s view because small lights in the grid are only located every 2 cm with space between them.
After affixing the display to his car’s rear window he used an AT89C51 micro-controller to feed hard-coded messages and animations to it. While using the display in its current state likely qualifies as distracted driving, Singh plans to make the device updatable via a mobile phone over Bluetooth.
Speaking of distracted driving, while Singh’s description of his project looks like the underpinnings of a patent application, he might have trouble actually getting the display into the hands of the masses. Think of those mobile billboard trucks that have been on roadways for several years — they have a solid history of being derided by lawmakers and regular people alike for taking drivers’ eyes off the road.
Still, having the ability to send messages to obnoxious drivers is an enticing — albeit probably dangerous — idea.
Stay tuned. Other eye-grabbing inventions are in the works.
There’s one that mounts to a bike’s handlebars and projects an image of a bicycle onto the road ahead. Although intended for safety and not for hurling insults at strangers, the bike projector also is intended to be noticed by drivers. The projected image, which is a bright laser-powered symbol of a bicycle, is visible day and night and can even flash to make sure drivers spot it.