Thursday 11th December 2008

Double Vision

Merc in-car screen shows two different images at once

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Watching the road is SO nineties...

Fed up with the constant backchat from your front seat passenger while deftly undertaking essential high-speed manoeuvres? Thanks to Mercedes you’ll soon be able to distract them from your highway heroics with a calming dose of their favourite soap.

The Mercedes SPLITVIEW system comes with a set of headphones so you don’t have to listen to ’Stenders yourself. Instead you are left to concentrate on piloting your S-class free from the whining tones of Bianca Jackson – or ‘significant others’ – with only the satnav offering helpful advice.

SPLITVIEW will be launched in the S-Class next summer, and basically allows two different images to be shown on the same 8ins screen. It works by projecting two different images simultaneously on an LCD screen using adjacent pixels, while an overlaying filter masks one set of pixels or the other depending on where you are seated.

So while the passenger idly whiles away the motorway hours with DVDs, TV or music videos, the driver still has access to all the information from the Mercedes COMAND control and display system.

[PhantomPH]

Can front seat passengers currently watch TV etc whilst the car is moving?

[teen_cerbera]

Not in my CLS you cant, and even if you had that TV in motion thing, picture & sound will keep messing up as you travel.

A great idea from Mercedes imo, costly extra i bet though.

Edited by teen_cerbera on Thursday 11th December 10:47

[Dave B S3]

The idea is the passenger can wear head phones and watch TV DVD etc without the driver seeing the moving image, yet it also allows a the same screen to show the Driver Infomatics.
Hence this is legal moving image in the from of a car.

Think of child front passengers, extended setup screens etc for passengers, and all legal from a drivers perspective. Having had DVD upfront and the passenger not being able to use it incase I can see it from a legal perspective. Also you could/can have mum monitor and control playback for kids in the back without distracting the driver.

Its a great Idea saw and used this about 3 years ago its a good move of technology, and should be cheaper than haveing two screens.

[yosamitesam]

the driver isnt allowed to watch a tv or be distracted by it. this is using by the looks of it pixels on the screen angled to not let you see it but angled towards the passenger front seat - also using headfones for the sound.. legal but wow - bet the conversation is rivetting! might be aimed at probable divorce cases..

[muffinmenace]

I think it's pretty safe to assue MB have covered the legality of this

[btdk5]

Genius!

Mmm wonder if i can get a copy of this for work, from where my boss sits it will look like i'm beavering away but actually muwahahha i'm just dossing about.....

Edited by btdk5 on Thursday 11th December 11:58

[pdV6]

motor08 said:

Would the driver not get distracted from seeing the passengers screen in the corner of his eye?

Read the article again.

[Alfanatic]

It's a good idea, Not that it matters really, but I wonder what it looks like from the central rear seat?

[m3sye]

pdV6 said:

motor08 said:

Would the driver not get distracted from seeing the passengers screen in the corner of his eye?

Read the article again.

Think you missed this bit

"while an overlaying filter masks one set of pixels or the other depending on where you are seated"

[Paul GTS]

btdk5 said:

Genius!

Mmm wonder if i can get a copy of this for work, from where my boss sits it will look like i'm beavering away but actually muwahahha i'm just dossing about.....

Edited by btdk5 on Thursday 11th December 11:58

[Dr_Gonzo]

I wonder when this will be available for home TVs. You could sit next to your misses watching something decent while she watches some crappy soap.

[neh321]

Wonder how much all this technology costs to develop.
What relevance does it have to cars?
Is there nothing better left to develop?

Edited by neh321 on Thursday 11th December 12:33

[balders187]

Thats so gonna break! Theres enough problems with the command system as it is! Good idea though

[dazsmith69]

the tech has been around a few years now, 3D screens use the same methods, but the images arnt as far apart, one for left eye one for right eye and walla a 3d image

Edited by dazsmith69 on Thursday 11th December 12:39

[jaik]

Anyone remember those "animated" plastic cards that move between a few frames of animation as you tilt them? It's the same technology here, just developed a little further.

[dpbird90]

I like this idea a lot. Shame Fiat won't do it...

[wab172uk]

Stupid idea IMHO.

Passenger starts laughing at the tv screen. Driver glances over to have a look. "BANG". They crash.

Great idea. not.

To many people can't drive properly as it is. Give another distraction on watch the carnage.

[shentodj]

I assume you'll be able to buy a LHD filter for your RHD car. That way the missus can deal with the Sat Nav while you concentrate on a Movie!

[Tom L]

So what you see depends on the viewing angle? so if you were sitting in the middle in the back you'd see the two images ghosting together?

Hopefully you don't want to see what the passenger is watching, may look like you're pleasuring them to other drivers

[BigBen]

jaik said:

Anyone remember those "animated" plastic cards that move between a few frames of animation as you tilt them? It's the same technology here, just developed a little further.

A lenticular lens. Very simple technology in a new application