Bosch Virtual Visor promises to solve a glaring danger for motorists

Bosch's Virtual Visor is a high-tech solution that promises to end sun glare problems when driving.

It's debuting in Las Vegas at CES 2020.

The centerpiece of the tech is a special transparent LED visor that can selectively turn portions of its display opaque.

I tried an early prototype version in a lab environment.

Don't worry about Kiss-style tan lines, those pixels are always moving.

By only blocking a small portion of the visor to combat sun glare, visibility is improved over conventional visors by up to 90%.

A small driver-facing camera uses special AI software to track shadows across the driver's face and determine the sun's placement.

The Virtual Visor test rig shows what the camera sees.

The AI software locates the driver in the camera's view and can identify eyes, nose and mouth. 

Honeycomb-like pixels have been chosen because their round form factor better blocks the sun than square pixels.

The system isn't perfect yet -- I was able to induce some delays and experience momentary glare with my movements, but this is a very early prototype.

This table shows the progression of Virtual Visor prototypes. This after-hours project was bootstrapped by engineers using repurposed old monitor parts and Arduino project boards.

For demonstration purposes, a flashlight on a tripod operates as a stand-in for the sun.

The Bosch Virtual Visor was conceived not at the German company's headquarters, but instead at its R&D labs in Plymouth, Michigan, just outside Detroit.

You can see the different tracking points of the AI camera quite clearly here.

Bosch is hoping to replace conventional sun visors like this hefty version off of a commercial truck. 

In fact, commercial semi trucks could be this technology's biggest market in the early going.

Keep clicking or scrolling for more images of Bosch's Virtual Visor.