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Bosch Virtual Visor and nose) in order to track shadows as they
move across the driver’s face. A patented algo-
rithm is then used to pinpoint where the driver’s
Since the dawn of driving, there’s been an annoying eyes are and selectively block and unblock
constant: sun glare. Early motorists squinted and (darken) sections of the Virtual Visor in real time
used gloved hands to block the sun’s blinding rays, at to prevent blindness. The key benefi t? 90% of
least until around 95 years ago, when some genius the visor remains transparent at all times, so the
came up with the fi rst sun visor. Almost a century lat- driver can still see out far more effectively than
er, modern cars are orders of magnitude more com- she or he otherwise would with a conventional
plex and capable, yet we still use that basic primitive fabric-covered visor. Beyond being uncomforta-
board-on-a-hinge invention to avoid being blinded by ble, sun glare is a major safety issue: The Nation-
the light. German supplier Bosch’s Virtual Visor may al Highway Traffi c Safety Administration says
just be the high-tech solution that modern drivers temporary blindness is a contributing factor in
need to cut through the glare. over twice as many car accidents as other weath-
er-related phenomenon, including rain, fog and
Debuting at CES this week, the Bosch Virtual Visor
features a transparent LCD screen paired with a small snow. Plus, fi ddling with sun visors means that
in-cabin RGB camera used to track the sun shining on you have to take your hands off the wheel, how-
the driver’s face. The system employs artifi cial intelli- ever momentarily. In other words, fi nding a reme-
gence to locate facial features (including eyes, mouth dy to this issue could dramatically increase vehi-
cle safety.

Twitter Will Soon Let Us Choose Who Can Reply to Our Tweets

At a CES press briefing, executives from Twitter out- users’ names, their verifi ed statuses, and more
lined policy changes that’ll affect the social network’s within tweet details in a Reddit-style tree layout,
over 330 million users in the months to come. Twitter making it easier to follow threads. Perhaps more
product lead Kayvon Beykpour focused on three core signifi cantly, Twitter intends to roll out controls
tenets in his presentation: Health, conversations, and over conversation dynamics, which in the com-
interest. From a report: “Public conversation is only ing year will allow users to choose who’s able to
valuable if it’s healthy enough that people would want reply to a given tweet: (1) Anyone on Twitter, (2)
to participate in the fi rst place,” he said. “[We need a group of people you follow and mention, (3)
to] ensure the integrity of the information that people people you know, or (3) no one. Twitter calls this
are consuming on the platform is high.” On the con- last option a “statement,” and they’ll be denoted
versations side of the equation, Twitter plans to take by an icon in the lower right corner indicating
different parts of conversations and stick them in a that the tweet can’t be replied to.
sleeker, slicker global view. It’ll pull out pieces like

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