Key fobs have all but eliminated the difficulties in finding the cardinal hole on a car door at nighttime , but what if finding your actual machine is the problem ? If you parked somewhere dour and unelaborated , BMW ’s fresh 7 Series will make it easier tofind your vehicle with a glow pathwaythat leads in good order to its doorway .
The troupe ’s Welcome Light Carpet seems like it would be an easy feature to follow through , right ? Just stick some LEDs under the car and turn them on at the button of a button . But the underside of a car is under never-ending bombardment from dirt and debris while it ’s being beat back that will quickly destroy any sensitive electronics .
To solve this problem , BMW worked with researchers from theFraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineeringto uprise a special lighting organization that stays safely tuck up under the sill of the car ’s consistence under the machine driver and passenger doors . Using 150 microprojectors arranged in a honeycomb regalia , the beam of light are able to ‘ deform ’ out from under the fomite using specially - develop microoptic lens and see a path that covers about 43 substantial metrical foot on either side of the sedan chair .
The lighting organization is protected from rocket kicked up by the fomite ’s front tyre , but smaller corpuscle like dust and grease might still find their way in . Fraunhofer ’s researcher are n’t worried about it , though , because the microprojector array they project means that while some of the shaft of light might get filthy and block resulting in some dimming of the Welcome Light Carpet , there ’s no opportunity all of them will be obscured at the same time .
[ Fraunhofer Institute ]
Lighting
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