A bank of blue lights illuminate a 2002 Ford Thunderbird that has pressure-sensitive paint applied on the driver's side window. The car and lights are in a wind tunnel at Ford Motor Company's Dearborn Proving Ground. Ford researchers have developed a computerized, pressure-sensitive paint technique that measures airflow over cars, shaving weeks off current testing methods. A digital camera near the blue lights captures this information and feeds it into a computer, which displays the varying pressure as dramatically different colors on a monitor.

Owner caption June 2003 · Photo 16 of 27