Alaina Gassler, a 14-year-old West Grove engineer in the making, has found a simple, yet ingenious way to remove deadly blind spots from cars, writes Joseph Muna for the website Science and Stuff.
Thick pillars on cars that are there to prevent a vehicle from collapsing if it flips over have created rather significant blind spots for drivers that have resulted in more than 840,000 accidents each year and over 300 deaths.
Gassler came up with a potential fix for the problem. During the Broadcom MASTERS science fair, the teen demonstrated that these blind spots can be eliminated by installing a projector that shows the image of approaching cars.
The solution involves an outward-facing webcam that is installed on the outside of the car’s windshield pillar that would then project a live feed on the pillar’s inside.
The invention is part of the “Improving Automobile Safety by Removing Blind Spots.”
“There are so many car accidents and injuries and deaths that could’ve been prevented from a pillar not being there,” said Gassler. “And since we can’t take it off cars, I decided to get rid of it without getting rid of it.” Read more about Alaina Gassler in the Science and Stuff.
Watch Alaina’s science project on Youtube.
