PhD topics

Good for you.

How about this? Replace the typical automobile rear view mirror with a semi-transparent heads up display in the central region of view for normal driving conditions.

I recently learned that when a person watches events in a rear view mirror that they are blind to the events immediately in front of them beyond a few feet. This is due to the point where the human retina has no receptors because that is where the optic nerve connects to the eyeball. Even though we think we have a complete visual image of our environment, we are fooled by interpolation in the brain. This leads to potentially dangerous conditions like a rear end collision in heavy fast moving traffic.

To see what I mean, try this very carefully. While driving, look in your rear view mirror and concentrate on how close a car must be in order for you to recognize whether or not you can see activated brake lights. I think you will find that you can only see them if they are very close to you.

So if you are driving at 40MPH or so, and look up at your rear view mirror at the wrong time, for a few seconds, you can rapidly approach vehicles in front of you that may have rapidly decelerated, inviting you to have a crash and thereby reducing your nice automobile into a piece of junk to be recycled before its time.