Heads-up displays (or HUDs) initially appeared on military aircraft before eventually coming to the automotive world in the late 1980s. This tech makes it seem like information is floating in front of the pilot or driver so that a person can focus on looking ahead rather than glancing down at the gauges.

Modern HUDs can display a wide variety of information, such as the vehicle’s speed, heading, current speed limit, and navigation details. Most of these systems use a dashboard-mounted projector to display the images on the windshield. However, a new patent from General Motors indicates the company has a radically different idea for implementing similar tech.

Shooting The HUD Into Your Eyes

GM calls this new technology the Autostereoscopic Campfire Display and refers to it as an “inverse head-up display.” The company’s idea is to have projectors aim the images at a person’s eyes to create a three-dimensional image. According to the documentation, the newly patented system would include a monitoring system, spatial light modulator, picture generator unit, and other tech.

The company outlines multiple ways to make this technology work. One solution is to have two projectors, each aiming at a separate eye. Alternatively, a single projector could rapidly switch the image between eyes.

What About The Campfire?

While the United States Patent and Trademark Office published this patent on December 05, 2024, GM has been working on this projection technology for a few years. A similar filing from 2022 explained that the system was able to project the same image to multiple occupants at once. They could all simultaneously see the floating, three-dimensional figure like they were enjoying a campfire.

GM’s patent filing mentions using this technology as an entertainment system in autonomous vehicles. Multiple people could watch the same 3D videos together while the car is driving itself.

It’s worth noting that automakers patent technology all of the time, and some of them never reach production. Registering these new concepts with the USPTO lets a company protect an idea for several years, so a competitor can’t do the same thing.

TopSpeed’s Take

Projecting images directly at someone’s eyes seems like science fiction. Also, we wonder if this technology would work for people who wear glasses. Assuming GM can really make this concept work, this concept is intriguing. It would be like having an extra screen in a vehicle, without the designers needing to reserve the physical space for another display.

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