[Q] App that mirrors the screen to use it as a HUD

[Phexi]

Hi there. I need an app that mirrors the screen of my android phone to use it as a HUD in my car. I've already found an app that shows the current speed mirrored, but i would like to have it for other apps, too. So that i can use apps like Google Maps Navigation with my front window.

I googled a lot, but i sadly didn't find anything...

 

[owenfernaldi]

I have been working on an optics/mount solution that will achieve this. I attach a photo that I took at night:



For this photo I was using Google Maps, but this would work with any app such as Waze, Uber, Lyft, Android Auto etc. A few other things that might not be evident:

1. The virtual image (reflection) appears to be floating 1m or more in front of the windshield. In the photo the virtual image is focused closer to the white wall. With the current mode of reflecting the phone directly on the windshield the reflection is at the windshield, so the driver's has to refocus close.
2. The double reflection is "virtually" eliminated. It is never actually eliminated but the second reflection becomes more aligned with the first reflection. This will depend on the car, as each car has slightly different windshield.
3. No special wedge windshield or reflective film is required.

So this solution does more than what a software fix would do. Also during the day the "gadget" could be used as a regular mount.

I can't give away the secret but I wanted to gauge if there is any interest in such a gadget.

Hey really interested int this solution , I did think the same solution too , I'm no good with these but is it possibly you're using a magnifying glass ?? Or is there some kind of "reverse glass film"

 

[slku]

I know im late. But thanks to this thread. After reading all these posts, i was convinced that there are no existing mods, or any other ready made solution available.
So thought of doing it myself. Changed the source and built a custom ROM on top of lineageOS. Added a new option (HUD Mode )
Here is a working video of my HUD display. cheers.
youtube.com /watch?v=kXynuJO0584
Since im a new member, im not allowed to post links. Use the above without space.

You are not late. But can you teach us how to do the same? Maybe without the checker box. It will be enough if you explain what we should change in settings/ files. Please, show us how you do that, so we can repeat your result.

 

[nikosbocho]

I know im late. But thanks to this thread. After reading all these posts, i was convinced that there are no existing mods, or any other ready made solution available.
So thought of doing it myself. Changed the source and built a custom ROM on top of lineageOS. Added a new option (HUD Mode )
Here is a working video of my HUD display. cheers.
youtube.com /watch?v=kXynuJO0584
Since im a new member, im not allowed to post links. Use the above without space.

Well done, this is exactly what people where looking for when this thread was started 10 years ago!!! Can you please share how you can implement the HUD mode on lineageOS?

 

[wen2ri4]

Can you share how to do it in detail?

I know im late. But thanks to this thread. After reading all these posts, i was convinced that there are no existing mods, or any other ready made solution available.
So thought of doing it myself. Changed the source and built a custom ROM on top of lineageOS. Added a new option (HUD Mode )
Here is a working video of my HUD display. cheers.
youtube.com /watch?v=kXynuJO0584
Since im a new member, im not allowed to post links. Use the above without space.

Thank you so much for sharing this. I can't imgine many people has the same ideal with me, flip mirror the phone screen. But I do this for other purpose, I haven't had a car yet. hahaha

 

[nikosbocho]

I am not a programmer but I think there might be a way to do the HUD without rooting or hacking ones phone. Split the screen on Android in landscape mode, on the left part of the screen load Google Maps or Waze, on the right part of the screen load the HUD mirroring app. The HUD mirroring app takes a screenshot of the phone every 0.1, 0.2 or 0.5 secs, flips the image vertically, crops out the right half and then shows the image in the app on the right half. When placing the phone on the dashboard the left half is covered with a piece of black cloth or paper card. Only the right half is reflected. There will be a small lag, but if it can be refreshed every 0.1secs then it will probably not be a real problem when driving. If it can be done continuously then the lag can be eliminated.

The disadvantage is that the image will be a little smaller and have more square proportions. However the advantage is that this could work with any app that is displayed on the left side of the split screen, Waze, Android Auto etc. Also, since the image is smaller a smaller reflective film can be used on the windshield to make this visible during the day.

Is this possible with an app? If so, is it easy to write such an app?

 

[vctrku]

Hi guys, any updates on this?

 

[ciobi]

I've been thinking about doing this for more than 10 years now, and last week I finally spent a few days to work on it and ended up with https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tech.ciobi.mirrorscreen

It's in beta, and all sorts of things could be improved (like battery life or color processing), but let's see first if there's still any interest in this.

Here's an actual picture of my windshield, with the HUD mirror and the phone running Google Maps:

 

[ashish_jha]

Hi guys, any updates on this?

I've been thinking about doing this for more than 10 years now, and last week I finally spent a few days to work on it and ended up with https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tech.ciobi.mirrorscreen

It's in beta, and all sorts of things could be improved (like battery life or color processing), but let's see first if there's still any interest in this.

Here's an actual picture of my windshield, with the HUD mirror and the phone running Google Maps:

View attachment 5327663

Good app but need to adjust too much. Need to automate the adjustments to make it user friendly.

 

[ciobi]

Good app but need to adjust too much. Need to automate the adjustments to make it user friendly.

I totally agree that the setup is a bit of a pain, and I have an idea on how to improve things, but it's also not particularly nice, and might not work all the time. (It involves creating a new, simple app to run it in the other half, to calibrate the main app. Then I could see exactly which part of the screen is taken by Half HUD and which part is used by the app you want to project.)

Also, I don't expect improving this would dramatically change the adoption, which is at a grand total of 21 users after it peaked at 23 a few days ago. My question is: After taking the time to set it up, is this something people actually want to use? How many?

Anyway, when I find some time I guess I could try the approach I described above, to see how well it works. Or, does anybody have a better idea?

 

[ashish_jha]

I think a better idea would be a full screen mirror flip with a small floating widget on top to bring to normal as and when needed.

 

[ciobi]

Anyway, when I find some time I guess I could try the approach I described above, to see how well it works. Or, does anybody have a better idea?

I think a better idea would be a full screen mirror flip with a small floating widget on top to bring to normal as and when needed.

Sure, but I don't think it is possible to do this in a reasonable way. I'm pretty sure you'd need to root your phone, and interfere with the screen drivers to make them flip the image and the touch input. These would quite likely involve significant effort and be model specific, at least to some extent.

 

[ashish_jha]

Anyway, when I find some time I guess I could try the approach I described above, to see how well it works. Or, does anybody have a better idea?


Sure, but I don't think it is possible to do this in a reasonable way. I'm pretty sure you'd need to root your phone, and interfere with the screen drivers to make them flip the image and the touch input. These would quite likely involve significant effort and be model specific, at least to some extenfor

The first thing I do after unboxing a phone is to root it. There is no life without root !