Denso announced on 19 October that it had developed the world’s largest projection size TFT LCD head-up display (HUD) for the projection of critical information onto cars’ windscreens. The company plans to introduce the new HUD to the global market “in the 2015 timeframe.”
“Since Denso’s new HUD can show lane guidance and inform (drivers of the) presence of pedestrians overlaid on the actual scenery, drivers can obtain information more quickly and naturally,” said Hiroyuki Wakabayashi, Executive Director responsible for Denso’s Information & Safety Systems Business Group.
The new HUD can coordinate with sensor-based technologies to warn drivers of the presence of pedestrians ahead. It can also coordinate with vehicle navigation systems and project directions and lane guidance onto the windscreen. Denso designed the new HUD’s positions, colours, and other factors to make for “a more natural” driving experience, and says it has increased the brightness of the display by a factor of two to provide a clear, bright image even in direct sunlight.
HUD is among one of the Human Machine Interface (HMI) systems that Denso is researching and developing to help reduce driver workload. Currently the company is researching how to quantify this driver workload.
Earlier this year, Denso launched a 7.5 inch full-colour TFT HUD and currently is working on other vehicle programmes in the Asian, North American and European markets. The Tier 1 supplier has conducted research & development on HUD systems since the late 1980s, and first manufactured the technology in 1991.
