Bridging the gap between a Gullwing Sports Car and a Movie Theater
Last summer, I was at a car show with my DeLorean. I had my PowerBook with me too, I was playing some iTunes through the car stereo. I tried tediously to balance the screen of the PowerBook against the steering wheel. Ergonomically, this just wasn’t working.
It was getting dark; the show was winding down; it was time to close up shop. I had left the front compartment open to pack away those folding chairs and picnic munchies. Frustrated, I set my computer down, and then my eyes tracked up through my windshield at the underside of the bonnet door. Here was a flat, black-carpeted surface that spanned most of the viewable area beyond the windshield. This, I told myself, is where I want my computer screen.
The Road to a 37 Inch Screen
The bonnet door is huge, allowing for a projected image almost 4 feet wide and 3 feet tall. I could use a simple PowerPoint projector, carefully focused, to project an image onto that surface.
Choosing a place to mount the projector was a real challenge. Most projectors need a focal distance of 6 feet or more, and the only place to get a distance like that would be to install the projector between the gull-wing doors or inside the car on the T-panel. Both of these proved impossible, as the windshield distorts any projected image that passes through it; the rear view mirror gets in the way of the projector; and the projector gets in the way of the rear view mirror – in a car that has enough visibility problems in the first place. Running VGA and power cables to any location other than the bonnet would also be impractical. So I was pretty much locked into using the bonnet as my projection center.
Next, I had to decide where to mount the Mac Mini. My first thought was to make it easy to plug the Mac Mini into the center console, and a company in Japan makes similar kits for a Mac-Mini based Single-Din head unit. Unfortunately, their kit costs more than a Mac Mini itself, and it does not really serve display purposes. It also does not deal with heat-transfer concerns behind a crowded DeLorean dashboard. I even toyed around with the idea of mounting the Mac Mini on the rear shelf behind the driver’s seat, but decided against it for many reasons, most of them involving heat - and the sheer volume of cables that plug into a Mac Mini.
I reached the conclusion that the Mac Mini had to be inside the bonnet, too. This would allow a short distance of VGA cable to connect the computer and projector, and it would be a great place to display the Mac Mini and secure it at the same time.
Other carputer systems with small screens make you feel like you’re tinkering with a little gadget. With this system, the screen is so big that It’s like a drive-in movie theater. You can sometimes forget you’re even in the car.
You don’t command it, it commands you. The immersion into the computer environment is meant to be so seamless that you become one with the car and the computer.
Front Row Through The Windshield
Projector Mounting - Revision One
Projector Mounting - Revision Two
Projector Mounting - Revision Four
Projector Mounting - Revision Three
Arguably, a bigger screen is more immersive than a small one. I’ve seen my favorite movie – Back to the Future – on my home theater dozens, perhaps hundreds of times. But when the movie came to Marcus theaters for a one-night-only big screen showing of the old classic, I was shocked at how much more involved I was in the story. I forgot where I was, the characters seemed more real. It was all because the screen was large enough to create a stronger, more captivating illusion.
To my knowledge only a few people have pursued the idea of putting projectors in their cars. Most of these folks have camper vans and plenty of room in the passenger compartment for a “living room” on wheels.
This is not the case with a sports car such as a DeLorean. The DeLorean interior is sleek like the cockpit of a jet fighter, but tragically, it doesn’t exactly have a plethera of cargo space.
Tiger Aqua Bouncing off a Mirror
Proxima Video Projector and Mac Mini
Maximizing the distance between the projector and mirror
OSX Desktop seen from behind the car, between the gullwing doors
iTunes Visualizer as seen from behind the car, between the gullwing doors
The Many Revisions Along the Way
Big Screen Psychology
This imaging system went through four major revisions. The first projector I had generated too much heat, was not bright enough, and most importantly, could not focus at a distance under 7 feet. The bonnet is only 3 feet long, so I played around with convex and concave lenses in a vain attempt to flair out and focus the image. I eventually settled on purchasing a projector that could focus around 5 feet, and I used a mirror to bounce the image up onto the screen.
OS X was 37” wide and I could manipulate it from the driver’s seat with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard. Not too shabby for revision number five!
DCS Pictures of Projected Display
Thanks to Kevin Abato of GrenexMedia.com for the wonderful pictures below.
These were taken at the BTTF BBQ as part of DeLorean Car Show 2006.
