Tokyo multilayer film that reflects light

Tokyo, Japan, March 18, 2025 – Toray Industries, Inc., announced today that it has launched PICASUS™ VT (see note 1), a wide nano-multilayer film that reflects light only from oblique angles. Applied to head-up display (HUD; note 2) technology, the film can deliver double image-free high-definition displays across a full-screen area of windshields. These displays remain clear even when viewed through polarized sunglasses.

HUD technology helps improve driver safety by displaying relevant information on windshields, so their eyes do not stray from the road ahead. While a limited area on the windshield right in front of the driver shows such information as vehicle speed and map navigation, new projection technologies have emerged in recent years to display navigation, warnings, and other timely driver assistance information more clearly and across a wider area of the windshield. A good example is panoramic HUD, which projects information across the entire lower part of the windshield. This allows for a more compact dashboard, creating a more spacious and comfortable cockpit environment. Efforts are under way to develop technologies to simultaneously display near and far information across the whole area of the windshield.

Current HUD technology shows information by projecting S-polarized (note 3) images onto the windshield because glass surfaces more easily reflect S-polarized light. Regular windshields, however, reflect images on the front and rear surfaces of the glass, causing double images. Windshields designed to prevent this issue enable clear display only in some areas. Polarized sunglasses worn widely in Europe and the United States absorb S-polarized light. The trouble is that HUD images become impossible to see when wearing such sunglasses.