Ford in Italy, together with agency GTB Rome, teams up with Aedo, a local start-up that creates devices for people with visual impairments. Together they design a prototype device that attaches to a car window and decodes the landscape outside, allowing visually impaired passengers to experience it with the tip of their fingers.
The device transforms the flat surface of a car window into a tactile display. The prototype captures photos via an integrated camera and converts them into haptic sensory stimuli. The result is not primarily visual. It is perceptible through touch and hearing.
Why this matters as accessible experience design
This is an assistive interface built around a real, emotional moment. Looking out of a window during a drive. It treats “the view” as an experience that can be translated into other senses, rather than a privilege reserved for sighted passengers.
The product idea in one line
Capture what is outside the car, then render it on the window surface as a tactile and audio layer that can be explored in real time.
What to take from this if you build inclusive innovation
- Start with a human moment. Here, it is shared travel and the desire to participate in what others are seeing.
- Use the environment as the interface. The window is already where attention goes. It becomes the display.
- Translate, do not replace. The concept does not mimic sight. It converts the same input into touch and sound.
A few fast answers before you act
What is “Feel the View”?
A Ford Italy concept with GTB Rome and Aedo that prototypes a car-window device converting outside landscapes into a tactile and audio experience for visually impaired passengers.
How does the prototype work at a high level?
An integrated camera captures what is outside, then the system transforms the input into haptic stimuli on the window surface, supported by audio cues.
What is the core design principle?
Make the experience accessible by translating the same real-world scene into senses the user can rely on, in the moment.