GM advanced tech window

Got backseat boredom? DVD players and Game Boys are so five years ago, but a new concept in rear seat entertainment technology that uses the windows themselves could replace squirminess and snoozing with interactive scribbling, sweeping and pinching.

General Motors Research and Development put that challenge before researchers and students from the FUTURE LAB at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Israel. The task: Conceptualize new ways to help rear seat passengers, particularly children, have a richer experience on the road.

The Windows of Opportunity (WOO) Project was inspired by psychological studies indicating car passengers often feel disconnected from their environment, GM asked the Bezalel students to turn car windows into interactive displays capable of stimulating awareness, nurturing curiosity and encouraging 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 an opportunity to provide a technology interface designed specifically for rear seat passengers," said Tom Seder, GM R&D lab group manager for human-machine interface. "Advanced windows that are capable of responding to vehicle speed and location could augment real world views with interactive enhancements to provide entertainment and educational value."

Since GM has no immediate plans to put interactive display windows into production vehicles, the R&D team gave free reign to the Bezalel students to create applications without concern whether they could be mass produced. Bezalel is Israel's oldest institute of higher education and one of the more prestigious schools of its kind in the world.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• GM
• advanced
• tech
• window

[TheMayonnayse]

Glad to know they're spending millions on this when they could be making cars run on water.

[miharbi0109]

bill gates should sue them, they are using "windows"

[christopherlacroix]

I got carsick just watching the video.

[cebokisha]

@TheMayonnayse honey, you have boats for that. and it sounds simple in theory, but reality is a bit more cruel.

[cebokisha]

@miharbi0109 No, Toyota Motor Europe should sue them for stealing their concept - it's called Toyota Window to The World and was developped in 2011 by TME and CIID (in Copenhagen)

[nipunapraveen]

this technology is so fucking awesome!!!

[mylexicon2]

Everyone knows the end game for this window--to expose a captive audience to advertising and online retail. We will pay a monthly fee for the privilege, but the manufacturers will not use that revenue for better service, instead, the money will fund a turf war over licensing/content.

The concept is great, the people who created it should be proud. The second they hand it over to marketers, the window will be used to turn our kids into consumptive drones with mush for brains.

[eran388]

holy shihummus wtf man..we don't have that in Israel thank god!

[knieveljaja]

@eran388 lol. maybe u don't ride buses in the US. it's not a pretty sight.

[eran388]

ummm...yeah. wait, what???

[knieveljaja]

car gets virus. porn ads popup on windshield. chaos ensues.