|
|
|
|
|
Consider this scenario: You are preparing for a long car journey, alone, on a route that you are not familiar with. Like most people, you probably do some route planning beforehand, either direct from the road atlas or with the help of computer route-planning software such as Autoroute Express. You print or write out a copy of the route to take with you. But then during the journey you find that it’s very difficult to read the route information safely without waiting until the car is stationary before looking at it.
Unless your car is fitted with a satellite navigation system (Sat-Nav), what you need is some kind of head-up display, to put the route within your line of sight as you drive. Military aircraft have these, using a complex and expensive system of computers, projectors, prisms and lenses to display all the main flight and targeting information on a bright green display focused at infinity in the middle of the pilot’s view. But those systems cost thousands of pounds. A simpler version might be developed for car use in a few years, but what can you do in the meantime? The answer is: make your own!
Keep reading – it’s not as far-fetched as it sounds! To make a very simple head-up display, you don’t need any electronic knowledge, or to interfere with your car’s electrical systems. It’s all done by mirrors! The system I am about to describe is based on an idea invented by one of my chums when I was in the RAF. All you need is a personal computer, some basic word-processing ability and a road map.
How it Works
If you put something light-coloured, such as a piece of white paper or an envelope, on the top of your car dashboard, it will reflect in the windscreen and cause you a bit of annoyance – but you can still see through the reflection at things in front of you. If the object is dark, it doesn’t reflect and doesn’t interfere with your view. That is the principle of the simple head-up display. It involves printing a summary of the route information in white lettering on a black background, reversed right to left, like mirror writing, and then placing it in the bottom right-hand corner of the dashboard so that only the lettering reflects in the glass. It works well – at least during the day!
Setting up the Route
Let’s imagine you want to drive from Newbury to the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) at Birmingham. You first make up the route, direct from the map or using a route-planning computer program. Then you edit that down to its most basic elements. You need a maximum of six lines of text, with no very minor roads, no superfluous detail and no headings, so that you can read it quickly. So your brief version might look something like this:
Newbury – A34 – M40 J9 38
M40 J9 – M42 J3a – onto M42 84
M42 J3a – M42 J6 (8 miles) 92
A45 – NEC turn-off 93
Minor road – NEC 95
Now set up a Word document containing a table with one column and as many rows as you have lines of type in the route summary. Type each line of your route into a separate line (row) in the table, using a simple easy-to-read font like Arial (the one we use in One Way). Use a large font size – one in the range 24 to 32-point is best, so that the letters appear about half an inch (or one centimetre) high when printed.
You now need to arrange for the lettering to appear in white on a black background, like the header strip at the top of this page. To do that, you select the text and change the text colour to white: select Format from the top of the screen, then Font, then Colour, then White, then OK – which causes the text to disappear! Then select the whole table, select Format, then Borders and Shading, then Shading, and click on black, then OK. You should now have a black table containing white text.
Printing and Making the Display
The final step is to print the route with the print reversed from left to right, as in mirror writing. To do this for most printers, you select File, then Print, then Properties, then Features, then Flip Horizontal, then OK. It won’t change what appears on the computer screen, but when printed out the lettering will be reversed, in white on a black background. This uses a far bit of black ink, so don’t make many copies! To check that it works, hold it up in front of a mirror – lo and behold, the lettering should appear the right way round.
Now cut off the white margins at the top and at each side – leave the bottom part on. Fold the paper back horizontally below the bottom line of text, take it to your car and lay it flat on the right-hand end of the dashboard – you might have to use sticky tape to hold it in place. The route information will reflect in the bottom right-hand corner of the windscreen, so that you can refer to it whilst driving. There’s your head-up display, and you’ll find it very effective. For a longer route, you will need to make extra follow-on pages.
If you try this and it works, write or e-mail to let me know how you go on. If it doesn’t work, you need to talk to my RAF chum!