Head-up Displays for Augmented Reality Applications in Racing Vehicles: a Feasibility Study

This paper studies the applicability of Augmented Reality Head-Up Displays (HUD) to car racing applications. HUD have been used for years in avionics to effectively represent environmental cues to the pilot without the need to look at the instruments. Recent advances in technology claim that similar systems can be developed for cars. HUD have been available for cars for some time, but have been exploited only as virtual dashboards. This paper looks into the potential benefits and limitations of truly Augmented Reality for car racing. In particular, the objective is to highlight the curbs of the track so to help the driver plan the best trajectory. We develop the algorithms needed to detect the curb and project its position on the HUD. We show that, in order to provide a precise projection of the cue, the attitude of the vehicle needs to be estimated and the information from a camera needs to be merged with a map of the racing track. We test the approach on an experimental vehicle rigged to emulate a HUD. The results indicate that, while the algorithms can be designed to be robust and precise, they require a very large Field of View.