The Vision AVTR, Mercedes-Benz’s latest self-driving car concept, features a brain-computer interface that allows passengers to control various functions with their thoughts.
To operate, users focus on the digital dashboard lights, and the car’s artificial intelligence recognizes their choice and launches a preset function. This can include changing the radio station, opening a window, answering a phone call, or perhaps sending the car on a predetermined route.
The BCI device measures the activity of neurons in the cortex in real time. It analyzes the measured brain waves and recognizes the points of light directed by the user [their] “Focus and full attention,” Mercedes said. in a report.
The higher the concentration, the higher the neuron activity. Then the device activates the aiming function in the vehicle.
The Vision AVTR was first shown at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but visitors to the IAA Mobility Auto Show in Munich this week can test the brain-computer interface for the first time.
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Inspired by the sci-fi avatar of James Cameron, the Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR Concept features “electronic” panels, side wheels and a brain-computer interface that allows drivers to control functions while focusing their attention. on specific sections of the dashboard.
After a one-minute calibration process, a device attached to the user’s head analyzes their brain waves and triggers a specific function – in a trade show, users focus their mind – or more accurately their eyes – on a point in order to ‘virtually’ ‘create’ wind, grow plants, and choose Parking spaces for recharging or turning day into night.
“BCI technology operates completely independent of speech and touch,” Britta Seeger, Director of Sales at Mercedes-Benz AG, said in the statement.
“This opens up revolutionary possibilities for intuitive interaction with the vehicle.”
The German automaker isn’t giving up on audio and touch controls – they debuted in 2018 Assistant voice “Hey Mercedes” Recently viewed a file Super MBUX screenThe 53-inch layered dashboard and infotainment system will debut on the EQS electric sedan.
It’s all about trying to “radically simplify the way the car works,” said Markus Schaefer, Mercedes-Benz COO.
During a demonstration of the brain-computer interface of the Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR concept, users wear a helmet that records brain waves and triggers specific functions.
The brain-computer interface “can make the user more comfortable, so that they can focus on the driving experience,” he said in the statement.
If the car’s name reminds you of a 2009 sci-fi movie, it’s intentional: Although the AVTR is meant to represent “Advanced Vehicle TRansformation,” Mercedes claims that its BCI technology is inspired by intuitive connectivity. Between Na’vi and Nature on Pandora in James Cameron’s Avatar.
Cameron was in Vegas to launch the future flight in 2020.
“I sat in this car, in front of the controllers, and I felt alive, it’s breathing, it’s just organic,” the director said at the time.
Diagram showing how the Vision AVTR brain-computer interface (BCI) works
You will not be able to load Vision with your ideas. According to Mercedes, the car has a range of about 435 miles before it needs to be plugged in, with a 110 kWh electric motor producing 469 horsepower.
The Vision AVTR was inspired by James Cameron’s Avatars. The “electronic panels” of the car (photo) are modeled after the scales of reptiles
The “electronic panels” of the car are modeled after the scales of reptiles and move the wheels diagonally and sideways, as well as back and forth.
Instead of a traditional steering wheel, drivers place their hands on a multifunctional control panel, an action intended to mimic the distinctive details of the Avatar.
‘The [interior] It comes alive and the car recognizes the driver by their heart rate and breathing,” according to Mercedes.
Instead of the traditional steering wheel, drivers place their hands on a multifunctional control panel, another nod to the Avatar movies
Mercedes also praises the Vision’s environmental friendliness: in addition to its compostable graphene-based battery, the car’s interior is made of vegan leather and straw.
The company hasn’t specified when – or if – the Vision AVTR will be available to the public, but it likely isn’t in time for Avatar 2’s December 16, 2022 premiere.
“They won’t be available in everyday life tomorrow,” the company said of thought-controlled commands like Vision. “But that’s not science fiction anymore.”
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