When I was kid, back seat entertainment on long car rides consisted of this: watching rain drops drag race down the window and fogging up the glass with my breath so I could draw lightning bolts on it with my finger.
We've come a long way since then. DVD players, video game consoles and LCD monitors embedded into the head rests are now considered the vanguard of automotive babysitting. Furrow-browed parents yelling, "Quiet down back there!" have all but evaporated into the past.
BLOG: Hack Yourself A Super Secret LCD Monitor
Now, GM is developing a way to kids looking out the window again. Or at least, at it.
The automaker basically handed over the reins to some researchers and students from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Israel to design applications that would run on back passenger seat windows. The "Windows of Opportunity" project (WOO takes advantage of electrically charged "smart glass" technology, which can reflect projected images but is still transparent.
The students produced a fullyfunctional, full-scaled prototype on which they demoed their apps. EyeClick's motion and optical sensors equipped the window with multi-touch and gesture-sensing capabilities.
Ironically, some of the ideas students came up with were quite similar to the pre-tech back seat window games of yore. For example, the Foofu app. It's essentially identical to fogging up the window with your breath and finger drawing, only with colored "condensation."
The Otto app also nods to an old favorite I remember achieving while holding a Superman action figure up to the window. The app features an animated character that is projected over passing scenery on the window, giving users the impression that the character is flying over the horizon as it responds in real time to the car's speed, weather and landscape.
BLOG: Turn Up The Tunes By Touching Your Car Seat
Probably the most relevant is the the Pond app. It lets passengers stream and share music with other cars on the road. It can also download tracks and display window messages to passengers in other cars.
While GM has no plans of putting interactive windows into vehicle production quite yet, Omer Tsimhoni of GM's Human-Machine Interface Group did have have this to say in a GM press release:
“Projects like WOO are invaluable, because working with designers and scholars from outside of the automotive industry brings fresh perspective to vehicle technology development. WOO is just one of many projects underway at GM that could reinvent the passenger experience in years to come.”
In the meantime, check out the project's video:
[Via GizMag]
Credit: GM
Tags: Auto, Cars, Music, Transportation
comments ( )