Minority Report–style screen manipulation seemed so futuristic just a few years ago. Since then, video-game makers have released gesture- and motion-sensing peripherals, and similar in-car technology from Mercedes-Benz and Audi starred at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Now GM has entered the fray with a research project aimed at transforming a car’s rear windows into gesture-manipulated, interactive screens.
The project, which GM has dubbed “Windows of Opportunity” (WOO), is being handled by students and researchers at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, Israel. The Bezalel team was given free rein to come up with a variety of apps that could keep back-seat passengers—particularly children—engaged and occupied on long car trips.
So far, the team has come up with four apps—Otto, Foofu, Spindow, and Pond—that it has demonstrated in a full-scale interior mock-up using motion and optical sensors. Otto is an animated, um, creature that “responds to real-time car performance, weather, and landscape.” Foofu “allows passengers to create, explore, and discover through finger drawing on window steam.” Make that virtual window steam, which is probably more reliable in Israel’s desert climate. Spindow is something of a video-conferencing app, and lets passengers converse via window with back-seat occupants in other cars. Finally, the Pond app streams music and enables passengers to share that music with and message other window users.
It’s a neat idea, but we question how long anyone could stand facing sideways to operate the system. There’s also the fact that most of the apps’ basic time-killing features are available now on any number of quickly evolving smartphones and tablets. At this stage, the technology is likely more a proof-of-concept, which could become valuable later as in-car technology such as head-up displays evolve and those smartphones and tablets become more integrated with the car itself.
For now, WOO is merely a research exercise; GM says the display technology won’t make it into a production car anytime soon.
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