Blind Spots - Car cameras made more useful...

There have been a few backup- and blindspot-cameras available for cars for a while now, but nothing has really caught on. But Nissan's Around View Monitor (via Gizmodo) might have what it takes for a more mainstream adoption - the innovation is that it synthesizes images from several cameras (top image) into a virtual above-car view (bottom image). It's almost immediately obvious how this could help in more ways than checking blind spots: making sure you can swing that u-turn, confirming you're centered in that parking spot, or helping with the always-daunting task of parallel parking. And if there's a dog somewhere in there, you'll catch that too!