CES 2017 – HoloActive Touch.
New HOLO operating concept from BWM for the car.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 in Las Vegas, the BMW Group is providing a further glimpse into the future with pioneering concepts and revolutionary technology.

The BMW HoloActive Touch system will be presented for the first time at CES.
The innovative interface between driver and vehicle resembles a virtual touchscreen whose display, which floats freely in space, is operated with finger gestures and acknowledges the commands issued in this way with haptically perceptible feedback.
BMW HoloActive Touch is part of the BMW i Inside Future study, which will give visitors to CES from January 5 to 8, 2017 an impression of the mobility experience in seamlessly connected and automated cars of the future.

For the first time, the functions are controlled via a completely immaterial user interface, which nevertheless enables the familiar interaction between driver and vehicle that can be seen and felt on conventional touchscreens.
BMW HoloActive Touch can also be used to control the wide range of BMW Connected services.
This further underlines the seamless integration of the personal digital mobility assistant through particularly intuitive interaction.

At the CES in Las Vegas, BMW has already presented pioneering advances in the field of display and operating concepts in previous years.
In 2015, BMW gesture control technology was presented there, which is now available in both the new BMW 7 Series and the new BMW 5 Series.
A further step was demonstrated at CES 2016 with the AirTouch system.
Here, simple gestures with the flat of the hand are enough to activate command fields on a large panoramic display in the dashboard without having to touch the user interface.

The image of a full-color display is generated by clever mirroring – similar to the head-up display – but is not shown on the windscreen but floating in the interior.
It shows freely configurable buttons and will be visible to the driver next to the steering wheel at the height of the center console.
In this area, which is within easy reach of the driver, a camera records the driver’s hand movements.
In particular, it registers the position of the fingertips.
As soon as they touch one of the virtual buttons, a haptic impulse is sent out and the linked function is activated.

According to information from Techcrunch BWM is developing HoloActive Touch together with the British company Ultrahaptics. The focus is on tactile but invisible controls that could revolutionize the automotive market. Ultrasonic waves are emitted and detected in combination with cameras, allowing invisible buttons to be positioned freely in space that actually feel like buttons. In principle, gesture control is combined with a haptic component. Apparently, this technology is combined with a hologram projector so that a free-floating image is projected into the vehicle interior, comparable to other holographic projectors

The concept car presented at the CES is explicitly a study and not a finished market-ready model.
It will therefore be some time before the first car buyers can enjoy the new BMW HoloActive Touch technology.