When it comes to innovation, Cadillac hasn’t exactly been at the very forefront of the industry lately, though maybe all of that is about to change.
The Rear Camera Mirror is officially one of Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New” winners, and is set to appear in the magazine’s December issue as one of the year’s top 100 technology innovations. Overall, not a bad way to greet upcoming models such as the CT6 sedan and XT5 crossover – both of which will be fitted with what is now an award-winning piece of tech.
The mirror streams high-res video and improves the driver’s field of vision by an estimated 300%, which means that you’ll see about 4 times as well as you would in a regular rear-view mirror.
The video streaming function is able to remove obstructions such as passengers, headrests and even the vehicle’s roof and rear pillars from the driver’s field of view. The video feed also reduces glare and delivers a crisper image in low-light situations compared to standard electrochromatic glass.
As for the in-mirror display itself, we’re looking at an 1280×240-pixel TFT-LCD, good for 171 pixels per inch (ppi) – which makes it about as sharp as some entry-level smartphone displays from back in the day.
Cadillac has also applied a hydrophobic coating to the camera in order to keep it clean regardless of driving conditions. The American manufacturer has earned itself no fewer than 10 patents for this technology, one for the streaming video mirror and 9 for video processing.
The patents cover several innovations in the field of camera image calibration, de-warping, glare reduction and hardware design.
This would have been a perfect product for the ‘Shark Tank’ in its infancy, wouldn’t you say?
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