Nissan Displays Multimedia Car at 2004 ITS World Congress

Tokyo, Japan, (JCN Newswire) - Nissan is displaying a new prototype vehicle at this year's 11th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems that incorporates a multimedia platform capable of showing up to 4 moving images on an onboard screen at once. The prototype is designed to explore future developments in vehicle safety equipment, convenience features and in-vehicle entertainment.

The car is fitted with one monitor in the front and another in the rear seat area. Depending on the chosen mode, the front seat monitor can display up to four images at one time from seven different cameras mounted at the front, side and rear of the vehicle, giving the driver all-round visibility including blind spots. Simultaneously, the rear seat monitor can show DVD images.

The multimedia capabilities are made possible by the adoption of a high-speed 1394 optical fiber network communications system which allows a data transmission rate of 400 Mbps (mega-bites per second). Whereas conventional analogue cables are only capable of transmitting one image, the optical network communications system allows the transmission of multiple images.

The application of optical fiber also means that the weight of the cables can be reduced to about one-half the weight of a conventional wiring harness.

The 2004 ITS World Congress, which takes place in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, will open to the public from October 19 to October 24.