How Augmented Reality will save lives

What’s going on here?

When driving down the highway we now see our directions, our personal navigations augmented, and overlaid on top of the current road signs.

PSA: The bushfire in the background has nothing to do with the concept. I put it in there because I liked the footage. I only realised later that it distracts more than it adds. The video is about the personalised road signs — not the fire.

What does this mean?

Road signs on our streets and highways give us vital information. They provide us with our directions, tell us how far away the nearest city is, when to prepare for an exit, the speed limit, lane size and more. They tell us a lot of important information. And they also tell us information that is not relevant to us.

If I am driving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, I’m not interested in the turn offs to Ramle or Beit Shemesh. I don’t really care that the next available highway can take me to Haifa. This is information I don’t particularly care for, or need at the moment. I just want to know my directions.

There is a solution to this. It’s called a GPS, and it usually sits on our dashboard or windshield. Either in a stand alone product or in our smartphones. Most of us have one.

The problem is that it’s small, about 5" or 6" inches, and sits on the dashboard. Outside of our field of view (FoV) when we are driving. Which means we must look away from the road.

At highway speeds, looking away from the road for even a second can be fatal.

Augmented Reality (AR). We can project the directions straight onto the road in front of us using the glasses, or have a HUD built into our windshields.

And what happens to the current street signs? Do we get rid of them?

They are located at optimal places, are designed to be viewed from afar. We can still use them, and this is where this concept comes into play. We take our current navigation project it onto the road signs. Telling us when we need to get off. How fast we are going. No more seeing information that is useless to us at that moment. No more 6" directions.

Navigation is easy to follow and to read. All the information you need.

Why should I care?

Every second with your eyes off the road can be fatal. If we can stop you looking down at your dashboard or lap every minute or so, and project your navigation onto the billboards that are naturally in your FoV as you drive, we can save lives. We will save lives. Lives that would have been needlessly lost by people momentarily distracted from ‘following directions’.

What is 2025?

Have you heard of Augmented Reality but thought it was just a fad? You’ve probably seen Pokemon Go (gimmicky game) or Iron Man (fantastical SciFi world) and confirmed those thoughts. With ‘2025’ I want to show you how AR is about to change your life.

Other stories in the 2025 series

• Augmented Reality Speakers
• Turn any dumb speaker into a smart speaker with Augmented Reality
• Why AR will change how we interact with our lights

You can find ‘2025’ on Instagram | Youtube | LinkedIn | FacebookOne more thing

My goal for 2018 is to reach 500 followers. So if you like my articles on AR, and you love the approach, please follow and share with your best friends!

How Augmented Reality will save lives was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.