Let’s face it — your car just might be your new best friend
Hell naw, not again! Balancing a coffee cup on your laptop you sprint out of your house putting the hare staring at you from the yard to shame. Thinking how the Monday morning sleep-ins seem to be the only routine in your life you get into your car…
Even if this was you now, give us 1 minute. Below is a demo of our latest achievement in the MIVI joint project. You might want to see this — think of it as an alternative Monday morning.
Let’s rewind it to the beginning:
“Hi there. Identification ongoing. Please hold still.”
You try to hold back a yawn and stare at your dashboard.
“Sorry. I am not able to recognize you.”
Okay, rude.
“Let me memorize you. Can you say your name, please?”
You feel a vibrating sensation on your hand, coming from the air as the haptics notify a successful recognition.
“Hello Timo. Please keep your head still for a while. Thank you. Now I remember you. Have a nice ride.”
A new era in car HMI is about to begin
The situation described is a successful facial recognition from a siili_auto demo, the software built on Kanzi UI and Connect platforms provided by Rightware and technology developed by a Finnish intelligent photography company Visidon.
The facial recognition technology is familiar from mobile phones but the adaptation in cars will make driving a new kind of safe, convenient and easy. It enables new personalised and contextual user experiences, when for example your stress level, mood and drowsiness is automatically detected, and HMI adjusted accordingly.
In addition to facial analysis and personalisation we combined couple of other trending technologies in in-car user experiences. Voice user interface is seamlessly integrated as part of the experience as well as different haptic feedback to provide true multi-modal HMI environment.
“Hello Timo. Have a nice drive.”
The driving mode starts. The system immediately recognizes you. A theme selected in the previous phase is chosen in the cluster.
The road is so smooth and the car all warm and fuzzy. You start to doze off.
“Please keep your eyes on the road.”
You try to focus your vision but damn those eyes feel heavy.
“Please keep your eyes on the road.”
Nothing.
“Hey. Wake up.”
The haptics in the air make you flinch awake. The seat is vibrating. Definitely skipping the tv-marathons tonight. You steer the car back to the middle of the road and arrive to your driveway.
“Bye, Timo. See you later.”
The demos do happen for a reason
The demo presented is the first output of a joint venture called MIVI, Multimodal In-Vehicle Interaction and Intelligent Information Presentation — an automotive consortium launched with Tampere University and several other Finnish companies in the global automotive industry value chain. MIVI aims to innovate and pilot future solutions for multimodal in-vehicle interaction and intelligent HMIs. The demo paves the way for future innovations pursued in the project.
siili_auto is a premier Creative Technology Studio determined to stay in the forefront of creating all the more innovative HMI concepts for future mobility experiences. Joining the MIVI Consortium was a no-brainer, what with it composing a unique combination of technology and design companies and university level research: being a member of the initiative enables us to build and verify novel multimodal HMI solutions and finally, deliver all that to our customers.
There’s already some new stuff in the works — and it has something to do with outright unique multimodal concepts. Watch this space. You really should.
Author’s biography:
Timo Posio is a passionate technology and software guy and senior manager with close to 30 years of IT experience from telecom and automotive. Currently Timo works as a Head of Studio, Oulu at siili_auto.
