BMW Group officially launches their ‘AirTouch’ technology at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016 in Las Vegas. The popular CES is being hosted in Vegas annually and is often the stage of many groundbreaking unveilings and newly invented gadgets related to consumer electronics. In recent years several car manufacturers have taken a strong interest in showing off their latest technologies at the popular consumer electronics exhibit.
BMW is set to present a vision car at the CES 2016, demonstrating what the user interface and interior of a car could look like in the future according to their perception. One of the most important components in that interface would be BMW’s AirTouch, an advanced version of last year’s unveiled ‘gesture control’. The gesture control was similarly unveiled at the CES 2015, now being available to the public that is in the market for a BMW 7 series.
AirTouch aims to give the driver and its passengers intuitive control of the car’s infotainment system by using simple gestures made by a flat hand. The receiving sensors are located between the car’s mid-console and rearview mirror, providing the driver and passenger plenty of space controlling the system using hand gestures.
The exact difference between last year’s unveiled gesture control and BMW AirTouch is that the currently available gesture control is based on the use of fingers only. It’s also limited to carrying out ‘basic’ actions such as volume control, accepting phone calls and a few more. AirTouch takes it a step further by featuring ‘3D control’. Instead of just reacting to finger movements, the sensors that are located in the instrument dashboard are capable of registering entire hand movements.
Additionally a concealed AirTouch button is nicely tucked away to the left of the steering wheel, easily reachable by thumb. This button’s main purpose is confirming the gestures that were registered by the AirTouch system. The passenger also has access to an equivalent of that button, which is located in the passenger door. The button is an additional method for confirming gestures, as gestures can also be confirmed using gestures from a second hand simultaneously.
Lastly the coordinating AirTouch menu is straight down to business and aims to lower the amount of steps that need to be taken to make selections. The CES 2016 starts tomorrow, January 6th in Las Vegas. The public will have until January 9th to check out BMW’s new AirTouch technology among many other new technologies and gadgets at the CES 2016.
