CES UX Tech: Screens, Displays, and Augmented Reality

CES 2021 is all virtual this year, and bone-crushingly dull to cover by contrast with the tantalizing (if foot-numbing) time we've had covering it live in previous years. Nevertheless we've trolled the Zoom rooms and parsed the squillion email product pitches to bring you the crème de la digital, virtual crème. Mercedes' freshly minted EQ brand made big news with its wall-to-wall Hyperscreen, artificial intelligence and augmented reality were big trends, and we found a fun integrated mirror dashcam to help you share those boneheaded moves your fellow drivers perform (hopefully without damaging your ride).

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Mercedes-Benz Hyperscreen

CES is all about screens, from Samsung's 110-inch MicroLED TV (just $156,000!) to the 56-inch-wide curved unit that will debut in Mercedes' electric EQS flagship. The glass itself is an aluminum silicate "Gorilla Glass" type material that is highly resistant to scratching or cracking. Let's hope so, because we can envision the screen replacement cost totaling the car before it's too old. That's because the OLED screens in the center and passenger side and the LED/LCD section in front of the driver are bonded to the single glass panel. Also connected: 12 actuators that provide haptic feedback when you touch buttons on the screen. A camera and a light sensor automatically adapt the screen's brightness to ambient light conditions.

But the screen itself is just half the story. The interface is greatly improved with a new "Zero Layer" that places the most frequently used controls on the main screen with no need for menu-diving. Most functions can be summoned by voice, or by touching the screen (the infernal mouse/touch pad we have hated is banished). Hyperscreen's eight CPU cores, 24 GB of RAM and 46 GB/second RAM memory bandwidth help it serve as the brain and nervous system of the car.

Its artificial intelligence promises to render the car as deferential and attuned to its owners' needs as a Victorian footman or valet (and it can remember the desires and caprices of seven front-seat occupants). The system will make suggestions based on previous behavior, presenting items like frequently used active seat massage programs, birthday reminders, and to-do list reminders as "Magic Module" icons on the Zero Layer. Similarly, if the driver raises the suspension to clear a steep driveway, the AI will store the GPS position of this driveway and automatically raise the suspension upon repeat visits.

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Panasonic Augmented Reality Head-Up Display (HUD)

Head-up displays are growing in popularity, and more suppliers are asking "why only display redundant info that's already shown somewhere else? Panasonic is somewhat late to the HUD game, but its Augmented Reality HUD leans on overhead projector technology to generate images on a large area of the windshield from a dash-top box no bigger than those used for conventional HUDs. Oh, and there's no need for a special wedge layer in the windshield to make it work either. Panasonic's HUD still displays the typical redundant info in the near field (hovering over the hood), while superimposing info like warnings of bridge clearances, pedestrians, objects on the road, bicyclists, etc. directly over the objects themselves. Your navigation path can be painted directly on the road with arrows hovering above it, points of interest can be highlighted, and crosswalks can be colored for emphasis.

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Two technologies can be used to produce the 4K resolution image—laser telegraphy from Envisics and digital light projection produced inhouse. Cool additional feature: An infrared film on the windshield could allow an infrared camera collocated with the HUD projector to monitor the driver's eye position. Until this feature comes online, another drowsiness/attention monitoring camera must be used for this purpose to properly align the AR images, but afterward it could replace such a camera.

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Gentex Mirror Display With Touch, Cameras

Mirrors that can project a wider rear camera view are becoming old hat, but Gentex wants to doll them up further with touch controls. By incorporating touchscreen functionality, the driver could pinch or swipe the view or select between standard rear view and, say, that of a trailer cam (see Panasonic True WiFi Cam). Gentex also suggests incorporating mirror-camera views in part of the display when the turn signal is applied. Adding a camera discretely hidden behind the mirror would allow the mirror to snap selfies, broadcast your live image in Zoom meetings, or monitor the cabin for child-left-behind warnings and the like. And finally, Gentex has begun selling a mirror incorporating a forward facing "dash cam" on the Japanese-market Toyota Harrier (Venza) that continuously records video to an SD card, writing over itself after so many hours. Such devices can reduce insurance costs by providing evidence of fault in accidents. Toyota charges about $900 for this option in Japan.

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GHSP Dual Stack Rotary Multifunction Controller

Just as BMW's iDrive rotary controller turns 20 years old, GHSP—a global provider of mechanical and electromechanical systems—is introducing sort of a two-story iDrive controller. The idea is that everything from gear selection to infotainment and other vehicle controls can be operated from a single point. When the vehicle is powered off, there is only a single multifunction wheel accessible; but starting the car causes a gear selector to rise out of the center of this dial a-la-Jaguar. This top selector is envisioned to have dramatically different texture (the concept was shown with knurled metal), and it only turns 30 degrees or so in either direction to select the gears, returning to center. The top serves as a finger-print detector for driver identification.

The multifunction ring below it features vertical ribs, rotates 360 degrees, and is pressed down to select a function. GHSP reckons safety is enhanced because the dual knobs fall easily to hand and are easily distinguishable. Drivers should never have to look at the knobs, nor worry about confusing one for the other.