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HUD display for cars

3D printed HUD display. Used in car to display maps, navigation, speed, time etc.

thiagesh-dthiagesh D
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This project was created on 10/13/2019 and last updated 6 years ago.

Description

This is a HUD display i built a while ago. It works on the concept that the windshield glass reflects some of the light from the phone's display while letting through some of it. So we have a good transparent projection over the windshield. But since it is a reflection, it will be mirrored/flipped.

There are few navigation apps out there which can output a mirrored view, so that it gets corrected once projected.

Having used one such app for a while, i started missing google maps. Only option i could think of to use GMaps is to mirror the entire phone's display. And having bought a new phone recently :P, i thought i could root my old one and play with it.

Apparently it turns out that there are no such options / mods or custom roms available for doing this. So thought of doing it myself. And this is the custom rom rebuilt from android's source to include HUD mode

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bonecaya wrote 08/29/2021 at 15:25 • point

I think this is exactly what I'm looking for. I have a friend with dyslexia. She sees everything as if it's in a mirror. I have mirrored forms that she uses for work so she can use them, then I mirror the filled in ones so everyone else can read them. She has an option to use her phone for the forms as well. She uses a mirror to read her phone and is extremely hard for her. If the screen was already inverted (as if seen in a mirror) she could fully realize the potential of her phone.

Any help or suggestions would be awesome!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Nikos Beratlis wrote 09/16/2020 at 02:18 • point

Congratulation, this is a very interesting and useful hack. Do you mind sharing the source code or the parts that needs to be changed in Android?

  Are you sure? yes | no

johnduffyjgd wrote 04/26/2020 at 15:29 • point

This project would be great for use with a teleprompter, where any app could be displayed instead of just the normal (white text on black background) teleprompter apps. I'm very interested in this. 

  Are you sure? yes | no

JVS wrote 10/15/2019 at 02:00 • point

Whats the app you're using?

Also I see some double-reflection on the acrylic, have you found a way around this problem? I heard there are some films for that but I'm not sure

  Are you sure? yes | no

thiagesh D wrote 10/15/2019 at 17:15 • point

First navigation app is Navier HUD which supports screen mirroring. 

The second one in the video is google maps (After tweaking android source to mirror the screen).

And yes., check this comment for the reason of double-reflection. https://hackaday.io/project/168005-hud-display-for-cars/discussion-134292

Have already added a film as you suggested, can reduce it further by adding a thicker layer of that film. We can also reduce the double-reflection by reducing the thickness of the glass. Haven't tried anything though.

  Are you sure? yes | no

JVS wrote 10/16/2019 at 21:18 • point

Interesting, I seen some people using polarized film to increase the visibility in daylight but I dont know if it would reduce double-reflection

Also have you considered using one of those tiny DLP projectors? wouldnt be brighter than a phone screen?

BTW is there a repo for that moded gmaps apk?

  Are you sure? yes | no

thiagesh D wrote 10/16/2019 at 21:35 • point

polarized film. sounds interesting. should check it out.

Will have my phone in the max brightness. it is bright enough for me.

I dint modify the gmaps app, i modded the android and built a custom rom which flips the entire screen's display. will create a repo for that once i find some time.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Umbral van Vooren wrote 10/14/2019 at 21:27 • point

A HUD display? So it's a "heads up display display"? 

  Are you sure? yes | no

RunnerPack wrote 04/13/2023 at 13:10 • point

Yes, and it's based on a Liquid Crystal Display display 😁

  Are you sure? yes | no

Jacob MacLeod wrote 10/14/2019 at 15:28 • point

This is cool!

However, could you have reflected the phone screen onto a mirror that then reflected the screen onto the wind screen? Would that have solved the issue of the reflection being flipped?

  Are you sure? yes | no

thiagesh D wrote 10/14/2019 at 18:45 • point

Thanks @Jacob MacLeod . The idea you suggested can work., but with a mirror in the middle, i think it adds another layer of complexity to the design making it look bulkier. And it can also take some efforts to get the angles right.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Jacob MacLeod wrote 10/15/2019 at 08:19 • point

Yes, that makes sense

  Are you sure? yes | no

Dan Maloney wrote 10/14/2019 at 15:21 • point

That's pretty cool - I always imagined building a HUD for my car during those long commutes.

Question: Does it look more in-focus in person? Seems like every photo I see of a HUD, even on fighter jets, looks a bit fuzzy.

  Are you sure? yes | no

thiagesh D wrote 10/14/2019 at 18:40 • point

thanks @Dan Maloney . Not sure about fighter jets. But here it is not actually projecting in an angle, so focus is not an issue in these types. But as the glass surface has some thickness, the front surface of the glass reflects some light, and so does the rear surface. This can cause us to see some double images. hopefully reducing the glass thickness should reduce the distance between the two overlays and make it less fuzzy.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Frank wrote 10/18/2019 at 08:15 • point

The HUDs on fighter jets set the focal distance to infinity, this is impossible to do with just a flat mirror. You need some lenses and some distance between the projection screen and the lens.

Car manufacturers who put this stuff into the dash hides the optics since they can manufacture it right into the car. None of the cheap HUDs you can buy on Amazon has the optics required. They do not project to infinity and thus your eyes need to shift focus to see the HUD.

The 3rd party HUDs you can buy that actually does have some optics will likely be a very small image. They exist! They are impressive! They are expensive! But they look small.

  Are you sure? yes | no

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