Company: Bosch

Category: In-Vehicle Entertainment & Safety

“In the cockpits of the future, digital displays will play a key role in the interaction between drivers and their vehicles,” said the Bosch team.

With its new 3D display, Bosch is responding to this shift in vehicle interaction. The 3D displays use passive 3D technology, meaning they are glasses-free tech 3D displays and also don’t use eye-tracking cameras.

The technology generates a realistic 3D effect that can be viewed faster than a traditional screen and can also be viewed from different perspectives and by multiple passengers at the same time. Because the 3D effects should change based on a passenger’s position in the car, the 3D display will provide a customized experience for each user.

The display’s depth of field can help drivers  grasp important visual information. From assistance systems to traffic-jam alerts, important or urgent information can jump out of the display and catch the driver’s attention. The rear-view camera image with the 3D display will also be more realistic, allowing earlier detection of obstacles and help drivers better understand space and approaching walls.

The 3D display also creates a new kind of experience for gaming, 3D movies, smartphone integration and more, improving the driver and passenger experience with bigger and more attractive digital visuals.

The Tech Behind It

The Bosch 3D display uses an autostereoscopic process to produce the 3D effect. A slanted lens structure, also known as an optical stack, is applied to a normal automotive display. Light from individual pixels is refracted or diffracted by the lens and steered in the appropriate direction to create the 3D effect for a viewer.

Essentially, the viewer is seeing several partial views of an image repeated next to each other to create a distortion-less 3D view that does not blur.

By dividing the screen into several partial views, the resolution per eye is reduced as well.

“Displays are increasingly becoming interactive systems that can better anticipate drivers’ individual needs,” said Dr. Steffen Berns, president of Bosch Car Multimedia. “There is huge business potential for Bosch here.”

See Bosch at the CES 2020 Innovation Awards Showcase.