New
contactless touchscreen technology developed by Jaguar Land Rover and the
University of Cambridge will help keep drivers’ eyes on the road and reduce the
spread of bacteria and viruses in a post COVID-19 world.
The
patented technology, known as ?predictive touch’, uses artificial intelligence
and sensors to predict a user’s intended target on the touchscreen–whether
that’s satellite navigation, temperature controls or entertainment settings
–without touching a button.
The
pioneering system, developed with engineers at the University of Cambridge, is
part of Jaguar Land Rover’s Destination Zero vision – a desire to make its
vehicles safer and the environment cleaner and healthier.
In
the ‘new normal’ once lockdowns around the world are lifted, a greater emphasis
will be placed on safe, clean mobility where personal space and hygiene will
carry premiums. Jaguar Land Rover vehicles are already designed to help improve
passenger wellbeing, with innovations including a Driver Condition Monitor,
engine noise cancellation and cabin air ionisation with PM2.5 filtration to
capture ultrafine particles and allergens. New technology like predictive touch
is another step forward as we address the wider landscape of mobility, from how
customers connect with mobility services, to the infrastructure required to
enable fully integrated, autonomous vehicles in our cities, like Project
Vector.
Lab-tests
and on-road trials showed the predictive touch technology could reduce a
driver’s touchscreen interaction effort and time by up to 50%, as well as
limiting the spread of bacteria and viruses.
Uneven
or poor road surfaces can often cause vibrations that make it difficult to
select the correct button on a touchscreen. This means drivers must take their
attention away from the road, increasing the risk of an accident.
The
technology uses artificial intelligence to determine the item the user intends
to select on the screen early in the pointing task, speeding up the
interaction. A gesture tracker uses vision-based or radio frequency-based
sensors, which are increasingly common in consumer electronics, to combine
contextual information such as user profile, interface design and environmental
conditions with data available from other sensors, such as an eye-gaze tracker,
to infer the user’s intent in real time.
Lee
Skrypchuk, Human Machine Interface Technical Specialist, at Jaguar Land Rover,
said: “As countries around the world exit lockdown, we notice how many everyday
consumer transactions are conducted using touchscreens - railway or cinema
tickets, ATMs, airport check-ins and supermarket self-service checkouts, as
well as many industrial and manufacturing applications. Predictive touch
technology eliminates the need to touch an interactive display and could
therefore reduce the risk of spreading bacteria or viruses on surfaces.
“The
technology also offers us the chance to make vehicles safer by reducing the
cognitive load on drivers and increasing the amount of time they can spend
focused on the road ahead. This is a key part of our Destination Zero journey.”
This
software-based solution for contactless interactions has reached high
technology readiness levels and can be seamlessly integrated into existing
touchscreens and interactive displays, so long as the correct sensory data is
available to support the machine learning algorithm.
Professor
Simon Godsill from Cambridge University’s Department of Engineering led the
project. He said: “Touchscreens and other interactive displays are something
most people use multiple times per day, but they can be difficult to use while
in motion, whether that’s driving a car or changing the music on your phone
while you’re running. We also know that certain pathogens can be transmitted
via surfaces, so this technology could help reduce the risk for that type of
transmission.”
Source:
Jaguar Land Rover