Thursday, November 02, 2006

Future Human Machine Interfaces

The topic of HMIs has become increasingly important seeking to maximize safety, ease of use and ergonomy in dealing with more and more sophisticated car equipments. Arguably, the biggest technology jump was BMW's I-drive that was (and still is) much criticised although eventually copied by other manufacturers. Much of the future of HMI will use I-drive type controllers, eventually linked to head-up systems for increased safety. The picture below shows a concept for a future vehicle controller (and by the looks of it destined to an American car).
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As a funny note we would like to remember an advert for Mercedes back in 2002 when the I-drive was under great fire of flame criticism. Mercedes took the opportunity to gain advantage on that. Of course, the advertising now looks ridiculous because the new S-series uses an I-drive type controller. The marketing people of Mercedes made a fool of themselves but not the engineers. Mercedes engineers are some of the best in the world and they knew when to change to a superior system.
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