A wonderful way to keep kids interested in the outside world rather than glued to a small screen on road trips, this interactive window design lets riders zoom into passing landscapes, test vocabulary skills and make video games out of scenic surroundings. But you really need to see it to understand its potential, so take a look at the short video below:

The core concept is simple: let windows appear simply transparent, then overlay a series of custom functions that can be adjusted to suit different needs and moods. A child (or adult, for that matter) can opt to label passing phenomena, or draw around animals, trees, houses and more while stopped (then let their work slide off the screen when the car starts up again). Video games can also be designed to incorporate elements creating all kinds of augmented reality possibilities.

It can also be turned to purely functional purposes, making that ‘zoom and enhance’ trick we are often fooled by on CSI shows into a real technique for looking closer at things around us. Screenshots can be captured, too — no more fumbling around for a camera while a cool sight passes you by.

Companies like Taptl are adapting the same technologies for boats and other luxury vehicles, but as with anything: what starts out expensive will only get cheaper and more accessible with time. And as vehicles go driverless, these could end up transforming how we view and use front windows, too.

The post Touchscreen Car Windows Turn Back Back-Seat Views into Interactive Games first appeared on Gajitz.

Looking at once visually plausible and conceptually impossible, the hacked automobiles in this art project visual expectations to make slightly-altered realities that boggle the brain.

José Quintela of Lisbon is a writer by trade but has been using Instagram’s layout application to collect and modify all shapes, sizes, makes and models of parked cars.

The vehicles themselves are so attention-grabbing, it takes a moment to notice the effect spills behind the borders of the bright cars themselves and into the surrounding built environment, subtly reshaping windows, walls and doors in likewise-improbable and humorous ways.

The post Tiny Cars Project: Mirroring Turns Parked Vehicles Surreal first appeared on Gajitz.

This smart little car does it all, compacting to smaller sizes on demand, sliding horizontally into parking spots (no more need to try and parallel) and linking up to form fleets of semi-automated vehicles.

The EO Smart Connecting Car 2 (or: EOscc2) grew out a project by the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, and has more than a few tricks behind its up-swinging doors.

The biggest feat is the app that allows the car to be connected to other vehicles on the road, forming an invisible chain led by a single automobile.

Having an individual master controller frees up other drivers to become passengers, sitting back and relaxing while someone else steers the modular fleet.

The post Modular Mini Smart Car Shrinks, Parks Sideways & Links into Platoons first appeared on Gajitz.

Fans of the classic Volkswagen Beetle will be amazed or disturbed to see their favorite vehicle squished like a bug.

Indonesian sculptor Ichwan Noor takes apart VWs and wraps them into uncannily perfect spherical and cubical works of retro car art. The deformed wonders are remarkably well cared-for, at least as well as can be said of such a strange condition.

His preference for these particular models stems from their recognizable nature – they are immediately obvious as Beetles, a classic design, no matter what form they are converted into. One can only hope he is working with models that would not otherwise be roadworthy!

The post Squashed Bugs: VW Cars Compressed into Spheres & Cubes first appeared on Gajitz.

Minimizing your travel time and complexity between home and, well, anywhere else, this living-room-and-car combination takes you straight from a skyscraper condo to the streets of your city.

Charles Bombardier, a mechanical engineer from Canada, worked with vehicle designer Ashish Thulkar to develop Tridika. The resulting pod-like living room is secretly a maglev car designed to scale the sides of buildings and become an extension of your home (that also takes you away from home).

Using magnetic levitation technology, the room/car speeds along tracks, climbing buildings and descending to join other vehicles below. Like many driverless car concepts, it takes a vehicle-and-room approach, letting people who would be drivers sit back and enjoy the ride instead. As a bonus, it minimizes wasted space – when you are not at home, do you really need to leave your living room behind?

The post Convertible: Maglev Living Room Doubles as Driverless Car first appeared on Gajitz.