The 'Invisible Mercedes' F-Cell vehicle depicted cruising Germany's streets
Now you see it next you don’t! Mercedes-Benz researchers in Germany have used an innovative marketing ploy to promote the new Mercedes-Benz F-Cell hydrogen-fuelled car. They’ve created the illusion of an invisible car by deploying optical camouflage using LED technologies and a video camera.
The Daimler researchers used the zero-emissions F-Cell Mercedes Benz as their guinea pig and then took the vehicle for a spin around Germany’s streets to show people how you can make a car virtually disappear.
Invisible to the environment
Following on from research already pioneered by scientists, the Daimler crew splayed the side of one of the new Mercedes-Benz F-Cell vehicles with multicoloured LEDs. As well as this they placed a Canon 5D Mark II on the other side of the car.
And the result? The video camera projects the surroundings of the car on the LED bodywork when the car is in motion, making the car invisible to those viewing the Mercedes, unless they are staring at the other side of it of course.
The F-Cell itself is a new hydrogen fuel cell EV pioneered by Daimler.
Check out this YouTube video of the ‘Invisible Mercedes’ in action …
