Bosch re-engineers the sun visor to make it safer and cooler

Bosch is introducing innovations in the sun visor to enhance driver safety and comfort and their product, the Virtual Visor was honored as a Best of Innovation in the CES 2020 Innovation Awards. It was also named as an honoree in the awards competition, which recognises products across 28 categories. The creative use of liquid crystal technology helps to block a specific light source decreases dangerous sun glare, driver discomfort and accident risk and increases driver visibility, comfort and safety.

The Virtual Visor is transparent LCD and intuitive camera, which replaces the traditional vehicle sun visor completely. Bosch’s technology utilises intelligent algorithms to intuitively block the sun’s glare instead of the road ahead. It links an LCD panel with a driver or occupant-monitoring camera to track the sun’s casted shadow on the driver’s face. The system uses artificial intelligence to locate the driver within the image from the driver-facing camera. It also utilises AI to determine the landmarks on the face ‒ including where the eyes, nose and mouth are located ‒ so that it can identify shadows on the face. The algorithm analyses the driver’s view, darkening only the section of the display through which light hits the driver’s eyes. The rest of the display remains transparent, no longer obscuring a large section of the driver’s field of vision.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports thousands sun glare-related car accidents each year, and another study indicates the risk of a car crash is 16 percent higher during bright sunlight than normal weather. The traditional sun visor is not equipped to adequately address this safety concern. Dr Steffen Berns, president of Bosch Car Multimedia explained that, “For most drivers around the world, the visor component as we know it is not enough to avoid hazardous sun glare – especially at dawn and dusk when the sun can greatly decrease drivers’ vision. Some of the simplest innovations make the greatest impact, and Virtual Visor changes the way drivers see the road.”

Jason Zink, technical expert for Bosch in North America and one of the co-creators of the Virtual Visor added that “We discovered early in the development that users adjust their traditional sun visors to always cast a shadow on their own eyes. This realisation was profound in helping simplify the product concept and fuel the design of the technology.”

The Virtual Visor also bagged the Best of Innovation for the in-vehicle entertainment and safety category, as it received the highest ratings from a panel of judges that includes designers, engineers and members of the tech media.