Car windows as a game interface

Transforming car windows into connected and interactive screens to entertain and inform while travelling: carried out by General Motors' R&D Department, in artistic partnership with the Bezalel AcademyThis innovation is based on the idea of using car windows as interfaces, new interactive media for drawing, games and communication to entertain and inform passengers.

Goodbye DVD players or seat-mounted games! Here's a new entertainment concept that uses the rear door windows of the car as a new play area for all those bored travellers on the road: WOOs.

Windows of Opportunity (WOO)

The project was inspired by psychological studies showing how car passengers often feel cut off from their environment.  General Motors has asked Future Lab of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Israel to work on interactive screens capable of creating stimulating awareness, nurturing curiosity to encourage a stronger connection with the world outside the vehicle.

"Traditionally, the use of interactive displays in cars has been limited to the driver and front passenger. But we see this as an opportunity to provide a technology interface designed specifically for rear passengers."said Tom Seder , GMR & Group D Manager of the Human Machine Interface Lab. "Windows Advanced is able to respond to the speed of the vehicle and these interactive enhancements can present new entertainment and educational value." 

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However, General Motors has no immediate outlet for putting these interactive windows in production vehicles; the R&D team gave Bezalel's students free rein to create these applications without really worrying about whether they could be mass-produced. Bezalel is Israel's oldest institute of higher education and one of the most prestigious schools of its kind in the world.

What applications?

- Otto, an animated character projected onto the landscape that scrolls by and responds in real time to the car's performance. With Otto, passengers can learn about their environment in a fun and entertaining way.

- Foofu, an application that allows passengers, with their fingers, to create, explore and discover drawing with the steam of the glass.

- Spindow, an application that allows its users a glimpse of other users' windows around the world in real time.

- Pond, an application that allows passengers to listen to music and share with other cars on the road, favorite tracks, download and share messages with other passengers on the road.

To demonstrate these applications, students made a functional scale prototype of a rear passenger seat and its side window. The students used motion and optical sensor technology developed by EyeClick  by transforming standard window glass into a multi-touch surface.

If these interactive windows were put into automotive production, they would likely have to use electronic "smart glass" which is capable of variable effects, translucency and transparency, and can reflect projected images. This "intelligent glass" is increasingly being used in architectural and display applications, such as in the film Mission Impossible but Ghost Protocol is rarely seen in cars.

"Projects like WOO are invaluable because working with designers and specialists outside the automotive industry brings a fresh perspective to the development of vehicle technology."said Omer Tsimhoni of General Motors' Human Machine Interface Laboratory in Israel. « WOO is just one of many projects underway at GM that could reinvent the passenger experience in the years to come. »

About General Motors

(NYSE: GM, TSX: GMM) and its partners produce vehicles in 30 countries, with leadership positions in the world's largest and most dynamic automotive cities. GM's brands include Chevrolet, Cadillac, as well as Baojun, Buick, GMC, Holden, Isuzu, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling. www.gm.com

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