CES: The Next Car Audio Display

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Head up displays on the windshield are already being touted as the car radio display of the future and suppliers including JVC Kenwood and Pioneer are getting ready.  As are Audi and Mercedes-Benz. All four companies showed prototypes of new hologram-like displays at the Consumer Electronics Show Tuesday.

Pioneer head up display CES 2012
Pioneer head up display at CES 2012

For the aftermarket, a head up display  may provide a means to upgrade the factory radios of the near future.

JVC Kenwood showed a prototype head up display that projects navigation and caller ID info on the windshield.    It uses JVC’s LCOS projection technology.

Pioneer also improved on its head up display first seen at CES last year and will offer it in the Japanese market this year with the U.S. to follow at some point.

Both companies see the technology as very promising for the aftermarket.

Kenwood’s Keith Lehmann noted, “Yes, I think the aftermarket will pounce on this.”

Pioneer’s Ted Cardenas said a head up display might be paired with steering wheel controls to create an aftermarket add-on system.  “It really could be the next display technology for the car.  It’s viable to be mass produced…” he added.

Pioneer’s version is in a unit that replaces the car’s sun visor.  It projects incoming call info and other data including augmented reality information onto the windsheild.

Users pair their phones with the display device.  Then they download an Android or iPhone app and the windshield becomes the display for the phone.

Kenwood said its system might also link to the car’s data bus, and it could include proximity sensors to alert you if you are about to crash into another car, or if you are leaving your lane, said Lehmann.

Also, while some luxury cars already have head up displays, they are only offered mainly as options so they are not yet common,  “So there’s plenty of higher end cars that don’t have head up,” which leaves room for the aftermarket, said Lehmann.

In his keynote speech at CES, Mercedes head Dr. Dieter Zetsche showed an augmented reality head up display that responds to gestures from the driver.   Audi also showed a similar gesture controlled head up display on the show floor.

Source: CEoutlook

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2 Comments

  1. How would this be allowed in a car, when they are thinking of outlawing even handsfree calling in a car?

  2. Come on Car Audio Manufacturers! Start innovating! Heads up display…of course they would be welcomed – if they were functional. Should have focused on this 5 years ago. Have you seen a BMW lately???? Oh, I’m sorry, you’ve been sleeping all this time!!!

    There’s no innovation or world class products coming out of Car Audio, not now, not for a long time. Probably never because there is no one at the helm of these companies who’s got any sense of what a truly great product or innovation is.

    Pathetic.

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