Mixed Reality (Forza) Drive Line Concept

"Pramoda Ravi (Promo)" (pramoda-ravi) 08/16/2016 at 14:03 • Filed to: None

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I had a pretty crazy idea back in the day, and with the way that technology is progressing I think we can finally build something to make this crazy idea become a reality.

We start with the “simple” idea of trying to drive a car around a track with the same Forza drive line that we’re all used to seeing and playing.

This idea is crazy, to think that we can somehow drive a car around a track with a guideline explaining where to brake, when to hold max lateral grip, and when to start accelerating out of the corner. Jaguar had this idea too, and they’re also trying to make this happen for their cars

Displaying this on the windshield seems like a really good idea until you start factoring universal application capabilities. Why would you try and design this idea for a single car and continue redesigning this idea for every car thereafter? How bad would glare be?

Would it be easier to integrate this idea into a helmet? Something similar to what Skully tried to do?

If you did, wouldn’t that mean you would have to take your eyes off the road to look at the screen?

What about using something like a Microsoft Hololens

What are the benefits of using Mixed reality vs. Augmented reality like what everyone else is currently using?

So far it seems we might have a platform to display Mixed Reality. If we can overlay holograms over the real world, we can superimpose an actual drive line. We can add gauge displays within the helmet, set parameters to alert you in case you’re losing oil pressure or any other mechanical malfunction. Set a “ghost” car to chase, while also predicting where the braking zone begins, max lat grip ends, and acceleration begins.

That last sentence has been the hardest thing to wrap my brain around.

How do I predict when/where a car will enter its braking zone?

Better yet, how do I know what a car’s maximum grip levels are?

Do I predict change over the course of a typical 20 minute HPDE track session?

The brakes require time to get up to temp before they’re at their rated mu, and the tires will begin to degrade over time due to heat. How do you predict when the brakes or tires will begin to lose grip?

Then it hit me

Why bother trying to predict the maximum capabilities?

Using an Intel GPS sensor we can track a car’s acceleration at a refresh rate of .28 of a second. Go drive the car for 20 minutes. Now you know where your limitations are with the vehicle. Push the car harder, and over drive the vehicle. What happens? You become slower. Now you’ve built a set of parameters to work off of. I’m not suggesting you go out there on the first lap and wreck the car from over driving it, but build up to it in increments. You can drive a car too fast with slower results.

This isn’t an idea to give you the vehicle’s capabilities, it enables you to become a better driver by yourself. The two things I preach to most students when I instruct them on a track is believe in yourself and stay consistent. Confidence and consistency are the two things most novice drivers face.

Now that we have a solid idea to build an application, what hardware would we have to use to make this a reality? There’s an enormous amount of data processing that has to be done for this to work correctly.

Intel has started making huge strides in development over the last few years. They’ve introduced Internet of Things (IoT), the Nuc, Realsense, and a few more incredible devices to build what we need.

Using a FLiR sensor to determine tire temperature

Intel IoT for data collection and transportation

Hololens for mixed reality, and a few other sensors such as the GPS, fluid temp, and OBD2 cable for ECU connection would be required to make this system work.

Sadly all of these sensors and components will cost roughly $5,000. It isn’t cheap (yet), but it is available to us now. The process of taking this concept to reality will take months of sitting in front of a computer while losing whatever hair I have left.

The end goal is to make a better driver, and I’m pretty excited for technology to assist us with that.

djmt1 > Pramoda Ravi (Promo) 08/16/2016 at 14:12

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So wouldn’t this put you out of work?

Pramoda Ravi (Promo) > djmt1 08/16/2016 at 14:20

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I’m going to begin development within the next couple weeks. With an ETA possibly by the end of the year. We’ll see how the stars align.

tromoly > Pramoda Ravi (Promo) 08/16/2016 at 14:28

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Lap sims are rather common, you can write one in Excel if you wanted to. Forza’s race line is just showing the race line from a lap sim and uses green/white/red to show your speed in relation to “optimal” for a particular piece of the track.

Your idea is basically the same as any modern AiM or similar datalogger that has GPS capability, you’d be better off picking up one of those and saving the hastle of troubleshooting your system.

Out, but with a W - has found the answer > Pramoda Ravi (Promo) 08/16/2016 at 14:35

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So, you’re actually trying to create an autonomous race car, that instead of feeding its data to actuators, turns it into a HUD. Quite ambitious, but if you know your way around networking and sensor fusion, it’d make for a challenging project.

It seems a lot easier (not easy, mind) and less costly to just review telemetry and GPS data after each session, to identify possible points of improvement.

Pramoda Ravi (Promo) > Out, but with a W - has found the answer 08/16/2016 at 14:42

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Think of using this concept while driving down the freeway in the rain or snow. It could provide the confidence people need to faster than 15mph during a light rain shower.

Out, but with a W - has found the answer > Pramoda Ravi (Promo) 08/16/2016 at 14:56

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Again, couldn’t you at that point just as easily implement an Autopilot-like system? The people that are driving 15mph will surely prefer a fire-and-forget system over one that provides extra sensory inputs in an already taxing situation.

The biggest challenge in autonomous vehicles isn’t the actuation, it’s making sense of the environment, and that’s what you need for this system as well. I think it would be very cool to have, but retrofitting the necessary hard- and software to make the system reliable and accurate, will be tremendously expensive, with not a lot of money to be made (unless you get that semi-autonomous capability as well).

Pramoda Ravi (Promo) > Out, but with a W - has found the answer 08/16/2016 at 15:01

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So make every car autonomous instead of building a universal system for any car?

Mattbob > Pramoda Ravi (Promo) 08/16/2016 at 15:06

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TL;DR, but if you drive in forza with the assist lines on, you are a noob.

Out, but with a W - has found the answer > Pramoda Ravi (Promo) 08/16/2016 at 15:16

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No, I’m just saying that the steps necessary to build a universal track overlay system are almost the same as those necessary for a (rudimentary) autonomous system, unless you greatly limit the scope of it (i.e. a racing line that doesn’t take into account dynamic braking and acceleration thresholds, changing surface condition, etc.). In that case, your interface will probably be the most expensive part.

And that’s if you limit it to the track. A universal road-certified system will be very elaborate and expensive, or not allowed at all.

Pramoda Ravi (Promo) > Out, but with a W - has found the answer 08/16/2016 at 15:34

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I’ve been racing for 6 years now. I’ve spent 6 hours at Road Atlanta and to this day I probably couldn’t run two laps that were within a tenth of each other, but I can turn 10 at NOLA within a tenth.

I can’t think of a better way to improve my driving capabilities, the reason behind this is for self improvement more than anything else. Not to try and make a quick dollar off of it but rather be the best driver I’m capable of being.

Out, but with a W - has found the answer > Pramoda Ravi (Promo) 08/16/2016 at 15:48

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But that changes the situation, doesn’t it? If you’re the only one working on and using it, you’ll be intimately aware of the system’s shortcomings/bugs/moods, and won’t rely on it 100%. As I said before: it looks like a challenging, potentially great project, but expect to spend up to a couple of years to get where you want to be, depending on how much time and resources you can dedicate to it. Limited proof of concept should be feasible by the end of the year.

DynamicWeight > Mattbob 08/16/2016 at 16:43

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Braking only because I don’t like memorizing things. Also, it wasn’t until I tried turning them off completely that I noticed that the tracks are modeled with skid marks that basically act as a primitive suggested line anyway.

JayWalker > Pramoda Ravi (Promo) 08/18/2016 at 15:23

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If you spend all that time behind a wheel instead of a computer, you will inevitably improve as a driver. Otherwise you will predominantly improve only as a software developper.

Pramoda Ravi (Promo) > JayWalker 08/19/2016 at 00:29

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How many hours have you clocked this year?

JayWalker > Pramoda Ravi (Promo) 10/18/2016 at 15:19

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Quite a few, considering 12000kms of daily duty in the M3, a 16 outing season in the Rotax 125 Cart and a handful of time-attack/trackdays.

In retrospect, that was a pretty douche comment on my behalf. I do stand by my words but obviously missed the point.

If you were to put in the hours necessary to develop something like this for the masses to improve their skill on track, my hat would come off.

Crowdfund this project if it’s realistically feasible.

endosymbiont > Pramoda Ravi (Promo) 10/30/2016 at 19:48

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Your question is about how we implement this. Within the answer is a taxonomy of issues. One point in the taxonomy is this: do we only want the driver to see the virtual sprites, or also passengers? Because driver only means that we can use a helmet or glasses, and—more importantly—a view that turns with the driver’s head. if the passenger should see the virtual, then we could use the windshield or even project onto any surface within the car.

I think you’re onto a big thing here, a potentially excellent idea. Sadly, the most likely implementation will be one in which the government gets control of it (I’m in the U.S.) and it becomes a “safety” feature (everybody drive slower!), rather than an enhancement of the entire experience.

944turbotime > Pramoda Ravi (Promo) 01/03/2018 at 10:52

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Great read, you guys should check out www.apextrackcoach.com, looks like APEX Pro is building a product that works off of this concept exactly!