Holographic Touch Interface in a CAR? - BMW @ CES 2017
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
916 words · ~4 min read
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You guys might remember the video that BMW sponsored us to do last year at CES
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with the mirrorless i8. That thing was freaking unreal. And well, they have
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done it again. So behind me is the BMW i
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inside future. This is like a kind of
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radical reimagining of the role that the
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automobile is going to play in our lives in the near to mid future. So,
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autonomous driving is upon us at this point. Here at the show, BMW is showing
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off autonomous 5 series prototypes that
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are using ultrasonic front radar, rear
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camera, front camera, and what BMW is calling an HD map to safely navigate to
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your destination. This is combined with a kind of fleet learning that I wouldn't
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have dared to dream of even 2 to 3 years
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ago. So BMW is not only using their own
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cars to recognize and modify changes to
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the route, like say for example a construction zone, but they're actually
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actively working with other OEMs to ensure that everyone is using the most
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up-to-date information. So that means even little details like how long you
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can expect to sit at a red light, you get a freaking countdown timer, can be
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accurately predicted in this way. And
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there are additional layers of intuitive convenience that can be refined as we
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move into the future. So Siri and Alexa
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have been joined by prototype Cortana integration through the open mobility
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cloud. And through that same network
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connectivity paradigm, you could even do things like order chocolates on Amazon
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on the way to a visit with grandma and have the driver meet you midway. So you
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don't even have to take an extra 5 minutes to go into the store to get
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them. And valet in parking lots. I mean,
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even multi-level parking lots where it would be pretty darn difficult to use
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GPS navigation, for example. Valets could be replaced by robots that guide
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autonomous cars to a birth and then don't ask for a tip for their trouble.
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But naturally, you'd need a very different kind of car to get the most
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out of this idea. And that is where the
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sculpture, as they're calling it, they've they've been very firm with me.
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Do not call it a car. Do not call it a prototype. Do not call it a concept.
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It's it's a sculpture. It's an idea. So, the interior design has been
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dramatically altered. Instead of bulky dashboards, even kind of futuristic
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feeling stuff like LCD monitors and cool looking illuminated buttons, BMW
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envisions a much more open and spacious alternative. This would give the driver
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and the front seat passenger room to relax and stretch out in autonomous mode
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or even enjoy a movie with a similar level of comfort to home. They even
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allow the passengers to have different audio experiences with what they're
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calling sound curtains. So, these are speakers in the headrest and the seat
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that are only audible when your head is within a very small zone. And they even
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include active noise cancellation in the sound system. So whatever music your
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passenger is listening to is completely
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inaudible to the driver, which is great if you have very different tastes in
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music from your passengers. Or say you want to get on a conference call with
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someone and the passenger doesn't want their music or their movie to be
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interrupted. Of course though, you still need to interface with the car in
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driving mode. BMW is still a a driving
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company. So, this is really cool and the engineer who showed it to us was super
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awesome. Um, they designed a holographic display with gesture sensing and haptic
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feedback. Okay, so the holographic display is visible only to the driver.
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So, you see buttons just floating in the air in front of you. It's pretty trippy.
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Gesture control is handled by Intel Real Sense technology. So the car knows when
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your finger is over a button. But the
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craziest part, and this was what the engineer actually had worked on, and she
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was like really proud of this. It's freaking awesome, is the array of
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ultrasonic transducers or or or speakers
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that feels like a mild um tingling
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sensation on your finger when you push down on a button or interact with the
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holographic display. It It's really cool. You kind
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of have to try it, and I'm sorry that you guys can't. You'll just have to take my word for it. In the back is kind of
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like a living room on wheels. I mean, obviously this is I won't use concept
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phase, this is sculpture phase stuff that we're looking at here. And while
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cork is perhaps a realistic, sustainable
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natural material to use in the future, moss probably won't make it into a
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finished product anytime soon. But the idea of having a tablet enabled 4K
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projection screen in the back of the car to watch movies or like a bookshelf
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where I can pick something out, get comfortable, and relax and read while
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the car takes me wherever it is I need to go is amazing. Especially for people
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like me who don't really suffer from motion sickness in the back of vehicles
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or while reading. So, autonomous cars cannot come soon enough for me.