Functional surfaces turn on as interactive cockpit interfaces
It is a look into the future of the automobile: illuminated keys emerge from the surface of a dashboard as soon as the driver’s hand approaches the surface. Where barely smooth imitation leather provided a tidy appearance, three-dimensional, illuminated keys now appear. Once the driver has activated the desired one, he senses a short impulse to confirm. As soon as he withdraws his hand, the keys disappear behind the surface without a trace. With these “morphing controls”, Continental aims to reconcile conflicting requirements for human-machine interaction: to make as many functions as easy to use as possible with as few keys as possible.
Continental’s surface specialists have developed stretchable and translucent materials for morphing control that convey the look and feel of artificial leather. The foil used allows precise and contour-accurate imaging of the illuminated symbols with high lighting intensity and homogeneous illumination at the same time. When deactivated, both the symbols and the mechanical elements become completely invisible and impalpable to the occupants.
Controls that only take shape when needed help to design cockpits that look like “all of a piece” to the designer’s eye. This requires a combination of material innovation, sensors, electronics and electromechanics: Proven capacitive proximity sensors behind the surface of the instrument panel detect the human hand and thus trigger the activation of the keys.
visible as soon as the user’s hand falls below a certain distance.
These are pushed forward by the reversibly stretchable, multi-layer surface material. Because the material is translucent, the function of the buttons can be indicated by LED illumination. The driver’s finger pressure is measured and a haptic signal is triggered when sufficient force is applied – another principle already proven in series production.
The driver receives confirmation that he has successfully operated the function. With this method, morphing controls can be operated almost blindly. When the driver withdraws his hand, the buttons also disappear behind the surface.
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