“The future is today”—this popular William Osler quote feels especially true whenever BMW pioneers innovative new in-car tech. The automaker’s latest development, a touchless touchscreen with a holographic display, further moves the industry towards a more intuitive driver experience.
This new interface system is appropriately named HoloActive Touch and is part of BMW’S new creative concept, I Inside Future, that publically debuted at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this month. The entire concept, including HoloActive Touch, investigates the nearing future of full automation and advanced driver-vehicle interaction.
This new system is an evolution of the current Gesture Control system on new 5-series and 7-series models, as well as the AirTouch concept debuted at last year’s CES. If you’re unfamiliar with Gesture Control, the feature allows users to perform certain actions—like adjusting volume levels and accepting/rejecting phone calls—through finger gestures and without actually touching the screen. Built-in sensors detect motions and act accordingly. The AirTouch concept is, essentially, a smarter version of the system that is designed more like a smartphone screen, where users can scroll and select functions without physically touching it.
HoloActive Touch is the pinnacle of BMW’s interface technology, eliminating the need for a touch display altogether. Instead, the interface adapts a floating holographic display that users can navigate through. A camera system detects what menu options users are “selecting” based on the positioning of their finger. The system in turn interacts with the user, emitting a pulse to let users know their selection has been registered.
While there’s no word on whether or not HoloActive Touch will appear on new BMW models soon, we can be certain that the automaker has a variety of innovations up its sleeve. To learn more about the current user-intuitive technology available, watch the video below!