Honda’s future Gold Wing is getting eyes and a brain
Stereoscopic cameras and an electronic brain to monitor the 3D world are soon on the way for the big bike
Fresh patents from Honda show the touring behemoth equipped with a pair of cameras in the front fairing, which will enable the bike’s safety automation to take over if it senses a collision.
Safety systems based on avoiding a collision with a vehicle or pedestrian, running out of lane on a motorway, recognising road signs or reacting to the driver falling asleep are common on new cars, but with this latest patent, we can be sure that the tech is definitely going to be appearing on the next generation of bigger bikes, too.
We’ve already brought you the news that KTM and BMW are working on similar systems using front and rear radars, and which are currently being put through their testing paces.
We’ve also shown you a camera built in to a VFR1200 model. With this latest set of designs registered on a Gold Wing, we can see that the big tourer is now the second Honda to be targeted for the tech.
What makes this different to a bike-mounted radar, however, is that this set up uses two cameras to produce a stereoscopic image upon which the bike’s electronic brain can react and thereby make a safety-based decision.
Stereoscopic vision works in the same way that our eyes do. By having the cameras set as wide apart as possible, there is a slight difference in angle and the amount of time anything in image reaches the electronic brain. Because of this, the on-board intelligence can work out an (effffective) 3D view of the world, and from there it can work out if an object, obstacle or person is moving into the direct path of the motorcycle and take action accordingly.
Honda already runs a similar system called Honda Sensing, which looks at lane position, adaptive cruise control, cross traffic/blind spot monitoring and speed limiting tech on its new Honda Civic and CR-V cars.
Expect this tech to be shown either at the end of this year in the big bike shows or with the smart money saying that we will see this first at the Tokyo Motor Show, which runs from October 24 to November 4 in Japan.