Scenic Drive, Everywhere


Idea: I happen to be on California Highway 1, which is considered one of the best scenic drives in the country. The drive begins in Monterey, the capital of Alta California under Spanish and Mexican rule and the home of some of the oldest buildings in the state. You drive south on Highway 1 toward Morro Bay through the California wilds, flanked by parks, reserves, and a sea otter refuge that extends from Carmel to Cambria. In addition to seeing California's wild beauty, Highway 1 drivers experience the wild adventure of two-lane, cliffside driving through Big Sur country, where jagged mountains plunge down into pounding surf. I started thinking, why do people have to come all the way to California to enjoy the scenic drive. What if the car windshield and the windows can simulate the exact ambiance! All the driver needs to see is the vehicle (moving objects) around his/her vehicle and road-signs. All these could be covered in a beautiful backdrop with some AI and computer graphics (detect moving objects, road-signs, pedestrians, etc. and re-image the rest with your favorite scene).

Reward: Well, your drive to work can be a scenic one. And guess what, you can adjust a few knobs and you could be on a completely different scenic drive to work.

Bonus: Extend this to racing tracks and you should be able to install CGI from NFS into your car and play a real race with real speed-racers in any terrain you wish.

2 comments:

Meenakshi said...

The only thing that bothers is, arranging the real with the virtual. If you miss a single real moving car, you could have a "scenic" mishap!

ideakrafters said...

It's not a bug, it's a feature. Keeps you on the edge, doesn't it? Maybe, I should list this as a bonus too.