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Toyota Patents Winking, Laughing, Crying Car
theodp writes "If the patent system ain't broke, don't fix it: The NY Times/IHT reports that four inventors working for Toyota in Japan have won a patent for a car that they say can help drivers communicate better by glaring angrily at another car cutting through traffic, as well as appear to cry, laugh, wink or just look around." The article goes on to describe "...a car with an antenna that wags, an adjustable body height, headlights that vary in intensity and hood slits and ornamentation designed to look like eyebrows, eyelids and tears."
The patent system may be broken, but I don't really see how this would be an indication of it.
At least to me, this is not an obvious idea.
Unless of course, you have a Japanese sense of imagination. I'd trust the people who invented Domo-kun , Vending machines for 'used' underwear and heated, self-deodorizing toilets to come up with just about anything.
...Therefore I wouldn't expect to see the middle finger much, but I would expect to see all the standard manga/anime visual icons.
There's a good list of them here, along with all the appropriate emoticons, although they left out a bunch of other less common stuff (bloody nose for sexual overstimulation, snot bubble for sleeping, escaping spirit for half dead, completely white from shock, puking looks kind of like a waterfall), and certain mouth patterns (aggressive fangs).
In particular, expect to see sweat drops, popping veins, and funny eyes. ^_^;
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
We could also go a long way by expanding the capabilities of the existing communications channels.
For instance, why not have brake lights shine brighter the harder you're braking? That would give people behind you an indication of how hard they need to brake, without waiting to judge your change in velocity.
Or brake lights that shine forward?
Or acceleration lights that shine green (brighter the faster you accelerate)?
Or turn signals that tick louder the farther you've traveled with them on (to remind you to turn them off)?
Lots of innovations in car UI just waiting to happen, but it's so fscking standardized that no one's going to make them. I'm glad to see Toyota's at least thinking about what it means to actually drive a car, rather than just trying to build the latest rendition of an old concept.
P.S. I get really incensed by the ads that are running right now -- I forget whose -- where the company claims to have 're-invented the wheel', 'rethought the car from the ground up', and 'come up with something completely revolutionary'. Then they show you a picture and it's... a sedan. Same as every other car on the road. Whoop-de-fucking-do.