Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Nothing is more frustrating to a car lover than heading back to their beloved automobile after a quick stop at the supermarket and finding out some jerk let their shopping cart dent your bodywork. This may be a thing of the past with a new system that automatically records any damage done to a vehicle.
The days of staring helplessly at the damage, wishing you had a way to find out the identity of the perpetrator, could soon be over thanks to Hella. According to Engadget, the German supply company is working on smart body panels that link with onboard cameras and GPS to record data and collect video evidence whenever dents or scratches occur.
The website explains that Hella’s system uses a grid of pressure-sensitive, foil-like sensors and special algorithms to detect when damage has been done to your car or truck. The damage detection system uses an algorithm to determine if a body panel is scratched, dented or otherwise damaged. If the vehicle has a GPS system, the vehicle’s location is saved, and any equipped cameras will automatically switch on to capture the event as it happens.
Hella is calling it the Intelligent Damage Detection System, and according to AutoEvolution, officials claim that it essentially gives the entire outer shell of a motor vehicle “a sense of touch.”
Only a phone call away
Marc Rosenmayr, a board member and CEO of Hella’s electronics business for North and South America, told Ward’s Auto that the IDDS system could be linked to an app “so the car calls you the moment [an incident] happens. If you’re close by, you can hurry there and see what happened and maybe even catch the guy.” Otherwise, linking the system to front and rear-facing cameras makes it possible to “take a picture of his license plate” as he leaves the scene.
Don’t expect to see IDDS anytime in the near future, however. Hella said that it is hoping to have its intelligent panel system available for use on higher-end production cars by 2018.
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