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Car Window Touchscreens
An anonymous reader writes "As if we need more proof that touchscreens are all the rage, designers are dreaming up ways to put them in cars. In the video, a child gazes wistfully out the window at a dreary countryside. Fields roll by, a lake, cyclists, trees that have lost their leaves. The car stops, and the child starts 'drawing' on the window. The article includes fascinating videos showing how touchscreens might infiltrate our lives in the future."
This makes my commute so much more pleasant, I can watch videos and^J^J^ NO CARRIER
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
On the other hand, I did notice that the "News for Nerds" slogan has disappeared from the site. That would explain alot.
steam it up and instant canvas
I can't keep the kids smeary fingerprints off the car windows now.
So, they are driving through a nice quiet countryside and that sicko draws an atomic blast in the middle of it. psycho much? Though, i did like how instead of looking at a few horses a ways away, you can have it be a big blurry blob instead! if i wanted to see that i wouldn't have spent so much money having my eyes lasered!
Great, one more thing to obscure the view of driving parents who spend too much time looking at what's going on in the back seat as it is instead of paying attention to the road.
Buy your kid a tablet if you want them to be entertained with tech. Otherwise, cheap out and get an etch-a-sketch.
I did this all the time as a kid. I'd fog the window with my breath and draw to my heart's content. Of course my dad would make me clean the windows when we got home, but I still did it.
"Ayn Rand is a bloody socialist compared to me." - Robert A. Heinlein
I've seen commercials touting the driving experience using touch screens ... The *last8 thing I want to do is take my eyes off the road to look at a menu while I adjust the volume of the car radio. It's bad enough that the controls I have now operate at a touch -- I want to be able to feel the control and know it's the right one by fell alone before I press it, all while continuing to look out the front window.,
And it costs $4000 to replace.
Goodie.
This is just another in a long trend of stuffing more and more nonsense into cars, which is the opposite of what we need. What we need are light, simple, effecient cars. What they try to build instead is cars with touchscreen windows.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
That should be cheap to replace when a rock hits it.
Facebook is the new AOL
On the plus side, the required level of embedded computational power should be enough for manufacturers to cryptographically lock-out aftermarket replacements, and the car's stereo/video system to freak out and stop working when it decides that your new window isn't HDCP compliant...
This, my friends, is Progress.
One of the first rules a toddler's parent develops is "hands off the glass! You'll get fingerprints on it!" Never has a parent actually encouraged their kids to smear their peanut-buttery fingers all over a car window.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
I have enough problems keeping the kids fingers off the window. They smudge and smear and make it look like shit, now you are giving them a reason to mess up my damn windows!
Now get off my lawn!
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
This sounds like it is just more expensive crap that will break, especially for the early adopters. Cars are really bad places for electronics in general so I wonder how this will hold up to the extremes of -10F and 100F as these values aren't out of the normal operating range cars are expected to perform in. Add to that the vibration from being opened and closed along with the standard road vibration and it seems like these things won't last long.
Time to offend someone
Huh. She didn't tell me about it until last night.
Right. Investing in a tablet for your kid to bring in the car (or the house, or the doctor's office, or the train, etc. etc. etc.) might not be a bad idea. But to build it into a car, especially the most brittle part of a car - that's just a malinvestment.
But, hey, I know people who have paid $900 a piece for dual built-in DVD players. I got my kids $100 no-name 7" video players from NewEgg, and those have been sufficient and they work everywhere.
Now, if this technology gets to the point where it's very cheap, then perhaps that's a different story.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Exactly. Some junkie smashes my window to get the nickels in the ashtray and the insurance company is out $4K. Or, worse yet, your windshield gets a crack and your insurance provider writes off the car.
Anyone else notice the child was not wearing her safety belt? And if the child is always facing sideways over to mess with the touch-screen window then they won't be positioned very well for a crash.
On the plus side, the required level of embedded computational power should be enough for manufacturers to cryptographically lock-out aftermarket replacements, and the car's stereo/video system to freak out and stop working when it decides that your new window isn't HDCP compliant...
This, my friends, is Progress.
No sir, progress would be displaying the "service engine soon" idiot light on the cryptographically locked out window. That means if a window ever breaks, in order to pass emissions tests in my area, you need to replace it with the manufacturer's window.
Another option, is to display the speedometer on that window. Only need to emissions test the car every other year, but need to see the speedo all the time.
And progress would be if the HDCP or whatever fails, it fails "jet black" so you can't see out the window...
Otherwise people will just replace them with plain ole glass.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
That is why I like my radio controls on my steering wheel the cruse control buttons there as well on my daily driver. I can operate them all without taking my hands off the wheel and they are in the correct spot so I can push them with my thumbs. Better yet each one has a different pattern when you touch it since the symbols are recessed so you know by touch what button you are on. On my junk truck none of that works so it doesn't matter where the controls are and my project car doesn't have any electronic gadgets other than wipers and lights.
Time to offend someone
It sure seems like, at times, technology companies will fall in love with new tech, coming up with applications without considering whether it actually makes any sense.
There are better and cheaper ways to use this technology, even for the described "problem". Put it on a tablet - using a tablet would be much more comfortable for the child than having to twist around sideways to play on the window. Remember, the kid is in a safety belt - and maybe even in a child car seat!
#DeleteChrome
No what we need is simple, effective, efficient public transportation.
LOL.
Gaah! This is just a concept w/ a pretty simulation. There's no technology for this currently nor even any indication that it will _ever_ be technologically feasible. It's just a "wouldn't it be cool if". Why do people treat these as if they are actual products in the making?
I'm still waiting for a proper HUD on the windshield
Why? What exactly is so important that you need a HUD for it in a car? It's not like you'll crash into the ground if your speed drops below 200mph.
And if you're driving in weather so bad that you want IR enhanced video then you should... slow down.
I agree with you on that... definitely don't think drivers need another distraction but.. otoh.. for passenger windows in the rear seating of an SUV or minivan, it might work for the entertainment purposes, like for kids. Don't know if it's a good idea but it's better than anything to do with putting that on a winshield.
From the original Ghost in the Shell movie, the cars in it had display screens instead of windows. Instead of expensive / delicate glass, they could have a hard steel shell over the window, and a display inside that showed what the outside view was, without the fragility of glass. (It took an enhanced strength cyborg multiple hits to get through the front "windshield".)
The potential of this is more than just structural - the display could show enhanced imagery, such as highlighting objects that might not be noticed due to low light, rain, etc. The display can go around support beams, which traditionally block the driver's view. There's more, I am sure - it doesn't even need to be touch capable, so much as a quality display mounted inside the car in place of a window.
Of course, if the camera system fails, that's another issue / point of failure...
Fingerprints!!!! The reason touch screens failed when they were introduced 25 years ago.
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
"and the child starts "drawing" on the window." - Mine already does this now...with boogers. /sigh
No longer will children be confined to condensation-inducing weather in order to draw cocks on windows. Truly, what wonders technology has wrought.
Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
I like the second video in the article better. Much more realistic. Gotta get me one of those see through iPhones!
I'll have the wickedest minivan in sperm valley.
The greatest joy of parenthood is watching them take their first steps into adulthood and then one day they realize that there is no money fairy.
*sniff* revenge at last...
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
Meet the 1986 Buick Riviera, and its factory touch screen control panel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoYSCuAwPUg
The voices in my head don't bother me. It's the voices in yours that do.
So you basically need controls that respond to your voice. The only touch screen they need to put in the front seat is the gps and you shouldn't need to touch that while you're driving. Touch screens on the windows....bah what a bunch of dumbasses.
"We are just a war away from Amerikastan. When god vs god the undoing of man." Dave Mustaine
And unicorns, faeries, dragons, and wizards as well. All are equally plausible.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
I used to think that was a good idea, but the car I have now with the steering wheel controls have such a bar across the steering wheel to house them all that I can't really drive comfortably with the 9-3 hand position required to use them. I have to pretend I'm either an old lady with the 10-2 position, or some teenager on drugs using the 8-4 position.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
>> the display could show enhanced imagery
We're all friends here, we know you mean heat boobs.
Atlas Shrugged : Thematic Story
This is still /. SO instead of all the bad ideas for some social reason, why not look at the technical issues.
The distance measured does not change while the car is moving.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Ads, overlaid on the real world. Inevitable with this technology.
So you basically need controls that respond to your voice.
"No! you don't turn left here, you turn right over there! No, other right!"
Do. Not. Want.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
What exactly is so important that you need a HUD for it in a car?
For every display that I might want to look at but don't want to take my eyes off the road, like GPS map, current speed, etc.
Even the audio information would be handy to have up there. Along with steering wheel controls, it would allow better attention. You still shouldn't be fiddling with the controls when traffic is bad, but keeping you from ever having to look down can mean that you have a fraction of a second more when the truly unexpected happens at time when you thought it was OK to look down.
...unless you're driving a classic Jeep, you're going to have a very hard time reaching that windshield.
(well, you can play with the side window I guess - but damn it'd be hard to see out the side of your peripheral vision)
Does bring up a point, though... how would such a thing jibe with automotive safety regulations? If you tint your windshield, or in some states have too much crap attached to it (GPS, radar detector, etc etc), you can eat a ticket.
Also, I remember some car model in the 1990's getting all crazy about having a HUD installed in it (it displayed speed, fuel, etc at the bottom of the windshield), but that never really went anywhere.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
I guess I am lucky then since this the the layout of my steering wheel. It was a good design so I don't know why they discontinued that layout and went to the 3 spoke design with buttons on 2 of the spokes. And no that isn't my car, it is way to clean to be mine plus it probably his fewer miles on it.
Time to offend someone
and then you hit the brakes a blue screen comes saying something brakes.sys has caused a system error and then you end up a Toyota where the car stops taking input from the brakes, gas pedal and soft on / off key.
I used to think that was a good idea, but the car I have now with the steering wheel controls have such a bar across the steering wheel to house them all that I can't really drive comfortably with the 9-3 hand position required to use them.
The obvious solution is to add more buttons for steering input.
A steering wheel like that would make me happy.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
Obviously the creators of this idea have never traveled with a dog - specifically the nose of the dog...
Three Squirrels
Well, maybe in the United States.
Good public transport seems like it's happened in lots of other places. I wonder if people being open to the idea helped that happen.
So everyone will just surf the web on cartrips, or talk to each other, or have lunch together, with a different interior seat configuration.
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Not sure if this is an issue in other countries, but here (NZ) we have nasty-looking, tattooed individuals who squirt your screen with guff and then wipe it off as soon as you get to the lights. I usually get my wipers going to discourage this sort of thing (once they lose a finger, they soon learn). But imagine the damage to a huge HUD display/touchscreen in the roadster....
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
Good public transit can work in cities, assuming you can get the cities to get over their power trips long enough to vote for creating a single board of directors to oversee all of the transit agencies in a region rather than having a thousand little Eichmanns each setting their own schedules and managing their own little sections of the transportation infrastructure. In other words, it's much less likely than unicorns; at least a unicorn could theoretically be created by genetic engineering, assuming you don't want it to actually be able to fly.
The other significant problem in the U.S. is that only a little over 68% of the population live in what most people would call a city, and nearly a quarter of people in the U.S. live in rural area or in towns of fewer than 5,000 people. (Source: DOT) For them, public transit is pretty much a nonstarter.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
There's this wonderful invention called "paper." And another invention called "crayons."
The Corning ad was pretty interesting, other than the fact that it disregards computing power to do all the fancy graphics they show and the video via wireless phone probably won't be able to scale due to bandwidth issues, but the ad was great, a step beyond Minority Report even.
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
And it costs $4000 to replace.
Goodie.
This is just another in a long trend of stuffing more and more nonsense into cars, which is the opposite of what we need. What we need are light, simple, effecient cars. What they try to build instead is cars with touchscreen windows.
Here'a an article with a picture of the design:
http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/The_Homer
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Like these? I swear I saw a production car that had this many buttons on the wheel. It was clearly the "car of the future" and the inside looked like a 747 cockpit.
http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/concept/1986_Pontiac_Trans_Sport_Concept_Detroit_02.jpg
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/1988-pontiac-banshee-concept-car-6.jpg
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
Touch screen technology is used in varying forms from kiosks, PCs and monitors to digital signage.As if we need more proof that touchscreens are all the rage, designers are dreaming up ways to put them in cars. 2012 hyundai santa fe