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Chips Will Make Honda`s Cars See

Honda, the great automobile maker has put $5 million over three years into Canesta, a company which specializes in chips that help computers "see". Canesta`s best known product is a virtual keyboard, which works the following way: users plunk down their fingers on the laser light images resembling a keyboard and their finger movements are translated to keystrokes.

Honda believes Canesta`s chips could help drivers know how close they are to other cars and pedestrians, and get other useful information. Automakers are also examining sound waves or stereoscopic technologies to give drivers better information about what is around them.

Toshinori Arita, head of venture arm Honda Strategic Venturing, said in a prepared statement: "It provides a comparatively low-cost chip-based 3D `camera` that could serve multiple applications from a single installation". The chips, which could be integrated into the body of a car, are still tested by Honda, as well as the car`s design, even though there are pinpointed car models that Honda will try to put the technology into.