In the Western countries where children increasingly travel by car rather than walk or cycle, Toyota is offering drivers a glimpse of the ‘augmented reality’ they envisage for kids travelling in the back seats of cars.
Toyota has turned a car’s rear window into a touch-sensitive screen that allows passengers to interact digitally with the passing scenery. The Window to the World concept aims to transform a routine journey into an experience of “play, exploration and learning”.
| Are we there yet? | |
|---|---|
| According to a spokesperson at the Environmental Transport Association (ETA): “The increasing number of vehicles on British roads and its effect on the travel habits of children fuels a vicious cycle – the more traffic there is, the more likely children are to be ferried about by car. On the face of it, the Window to the World idea is simply the latest development in in-car entertainment, but the answer to healthier and happier kids is more time spent walking and cycling outdoors experiencing real life, rather than the augmenting of reality within a metal box.” |
What is ‘augmented reality’?
‘Augmented reality’or AR is the latest technology buzzword. Wikipedia defines AR as “a view of a real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data”. The technology makes possible interactive encyclopaedias such as iPhone applications that allow users to hold their handset up to landmark and view it superimposed with historical data and images.
More cars, fewer kids walking to school
Despite the record price of fuel and a reported decline in traffic, figures from the Department for Transport show the proportion of households without a car fell from 30 per cent in 1995-7 to 25 per cent in 2007.
In itself this might not be regarded as a concern, but the proportion of 7-10 year olds making their way to school independently fell from 19 per cent to 15 per cent last over a similar time frame.
A spokesperson for the Environmental Transport Association (ETA) said: “The fact that fewer and fewer children are allowed to cross the road or travel to school unaccompanied is a disturbing trend – everything else being equal children who get some exercise on their way to school are healthier and perform better academically than those driven to school.”
0 Comments View now