‘Predictive touch’ has been developed along with Cambridge University engineering department to arrest the spread of the dreaded disease
Jaguar Land Rover has patented a contactless touchscreen which uses artificial intelligence and sensors to operate. This has been developed to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and has been proved in a series of lab tests and on road trials that the use of touchscreen can be reduced by as much as 50 percent via what the company calls Predictive Touch.
This contactless touchscreen is developed along with University of Cambridge and predicts the user’s intention to touch any buttons on the touchscreen be it satellite navigation, temperature controls or entertainment. This development is a part of Land Rover’s Destination Zero vision where the company plans safer vehicles for a cleaner and healthier environment.
Destination Zero also reduces the time that the drivers will take their eyes off the road thereby leading to fewer accidents. As indicated by University of Cambridge, Engineering Professor, Simon Godsill, touchscreen and other interactive displays require multiple touch points to change music or to make phone calls.
How it works?
This can sometimes prove difficult while in a moving vehicle over rough roads while pathogens can be easily transferred over surfaces and hence this contactless system would help to reduce this sort of risk by a great extent. The gesture tracker uses vision or radio frequency based sensors to combine textual information like user profile, interface design and environmental conditions with data as received from other sensors such as eye gaze tracker to understand the user’s needs in real time. Below is a video from Jaguar Land Rover, showing the functioning of this new technology. The video is from 2015, showing how long the tech has been in the making.
Since the coronavirus pandemic is not going to leave us anytime soon, Jaguar Land Rover is also paying greater attention to a cleaner and safety environment within their vehicles. Driver Condition Monitor is a new area of innovation along with engine noise cancellation and cabin air ionization with PM 2.5 filter
Project Vector
Project Vector is another big move towards Destination Zero as Jaguar Land Rover wishes to see a future of zero emissions, zero accidents and zero congestion. Project Vector is being developed at Warwick University’s National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC). The vehicle is just 4 meters long and designed for city driving with battery and Drivetrain components positioned on the floor. It sees different seating configurations for both private and shared use and also for commercial use in last mile deliveries.
