infotainment

BARCELONA, Spain--At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Israeli start-up Comodo Console debuted a low-cost, all-in-one infotainment system that turns any car--including a 10-year-old beater--into a cutting-edge, connected tech sled.

Comodo's aftermarket product is a one-stop shop that goes way beyond your typical dash-mounted navigation system. For a flat monthly fee the company provides all the hardware, software, and data plan necessary to install and run the console in the vehicle. The package includes a rotatable console with a 4.3-inch touch screen, dedicated USB modem, GPS antenna, Bluetooth, backup camera, external microphone, speaker, and installation kit--devices that … Read more

In an effort to keep eyes on the road and hands on the wheel, researchers at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence are working on new technology that could let drivers control their vehicles' in-cabin systems with a just a wave of a finger.

Geremin is a multimodal interaction technology that enables drivers to control temperature, volume, and entertainment systems using gestures. As infotainment systems become more complex and cars pull double duty as mobile offices, dashboards and steering wheels will become overloaded with buttons. Finger gestures give drivers a new way to communicate with the vehicle without taking … Read more

QNX unveiled its CAR Application Platform that uses mobile phones to integrate the latest technology and applications with a vehicle's infotainment system. The Canadian company's platform goes beyond Bluetooth audio streaming and uses Nokia Terminal Mode and Apple iPod Out to connect smartphones with the vehicle's multimedia head unit, opening the door to adding e-mail, social networking, music, navigation, and other applications, such as parking spot finders, to in-dash screens.

The integration strategy will enable users to eliminate the learning curve for mastering a new audio system. QNX will also be able to add new functionality quickly without hardware or software upgrades. The downside is that the available features depend on the phone and apps you use.

Based on QNX's promotional videos, it appears non-iPhone users will get the most robust functionality. QNX uses the VPN protocol to connect Terminal Mode-equipped smartphones with the vehicles' multimedia head unit, replicating the device's interface on the navigation screen. The car occupants can use the audio and steering-wheel controls or touch-screen to interact with the phone, and QNX will disable certain features it deems unsafe while driving. Unfortunately, iPod Out doesn't offer the type of data integration available on Terminal Mode-equipped phones.

Terminal Mode was developed by Nokia and Consumer Electronics for Automotive (CE4A), an association of which BMW, Audi, Daimler, and Volkswagen are members. QNX, formerly a subsidiary of Harman International, was purchased by Research In Motion last April. BMW offers Harman Kardon branded audio systems in its product line, and has already expressed intent to use QNX's platform to incorporate iPod Out and read BlackBerry e-mails to passengers.

QNX unveiled the new platform at the Society of Automotive Engineers Convergence 2010 conference last week in a modified Chevrolet Corvette, which also demoed QNX's dynamically reconfigurable digital instrument cluster. The feature offers two different displays: driving mode, which shows the tachometer and speedometer, or information mode, which shows weather, navigation, or entertainment information. … Read more

It seems that GM is realizing it needs to play catch-up to Ford's SYNC infotainment system, and has promised to release new features in addition to the beta testing of its OnStar-to-Facebook and voice text messaging capability that it announced this week.

"Within the next nine to 18 months, GM will aggressively introduce a wide variety of in-vehicle infotainment solutions providing smart, intuitive, and safe technologies that will improve the driving experience," says Micky Bly, GM's executive director of electrical architectures and infotainment.

On GM's blog, Bly says that the automaker will integrate online streaming applications … Read more

Research In Motion is making a play for the automotive market, announcing Friday its acquisition of QNX Software Systems from Harman International. QNX brings an open-platform operating system to the game and RIM is looking to advance it in the automotive world.

In a statement, RIM President and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said:

RIM is excited about the planned acquisition of QNX Software Systems and we look forward to ongoing collaboration between Harman, QNX and RIM to further integrate and enhance the user experience between smartphones and in-vehicle audio and infotainment systems. In addition to our interests in expanding the opportunities … Read more

Volvo's got a new infotainment system to keep the kids (or adults) busy in the back seat.

The automaker said its 2010 Volvo XC70 vehicle will make its entrance at the Chicago Auto Show Thursday with a new rear-seat entertainment system. Sporting Windows XP, Wi-Fi, and a 500GB hard drive, the RSEi-500 system will let backseat passengers surf the Web, check e-mail, listen to music, and watch TV and movies.

To view content, passengers can wirelessly connect to the in-car system from their personal PCs to transfer video, audio, and other files. While on the road, people can plug … Read more

Certain Kia car owners will soon be able to play music and make phone calls, all by just the sound of their voice.

Kia Motors' new infotainment system "Uvo powered by Microsoft" will let car owners access its key features by voice as well as by touch. With an assist from Microsoft speech technology and an embedded version of Windows, Uvo will help drivers and passengers make and answer phone calls, respond to text messages, and play music from different sources, said Kia.

Using Microsoft's voice recognition, car owners will be able to direct the system by issuing short voice commands rather searching through complex menus, said Kia. Drivers and passengers can scroll through their music lists and phone books by voice or via the touch screen.

For greater accuracy, speech recognition profiles can be created and trained for two different voices from among a variety of languages. The system can even respond to questions, such as "What's playing?" so that drivers don't have to fumble or take their eyes off the road.… Read more

Far from corporate headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, the engineers at Volkswagen's Electronic Research Laboratory (ERL) take advantage of their proximity to high-tech companies such as Apple, Intel, and Google to develop new infotainment systems and interfaces for VW cars. We got a look at ERL's latest work, a system developed with Intel called the Global Open Research Infotainment Architecture, or GLORIA.

ERL Senior Engineer Eric Jensen walked us through the latest interface built on GLORIA. The test system we saw relied on a touch screen for all input, although a production system might use some hard buttons on … Read more

The competition between Microsoft and open-source software reaches into the automotive space with the announcement of a new alliance among automakers and technology providers called Genivi. The goal of the alliance is to build a Linux stack that will provide a common architecture for automotive infotainment systems.

At the same time, Microsoft announces version 4.0 of its own automotive platform, on which Ford's Sync and Fiat's Blue & Me systems are based. The new Microsoft platform now supports Intel chip architecture and includes what Microsoft calls "common head unit functionality," meaning that the platform comes with standard modules for integrating CD playback and ripping, along with other applications.

Version 4.0 supports a common voice command structure that works for typical car applications, such as navigation and Bluetooth cell phone integration, so users won't have to go back to a top-level tree structure to issue commands for different in-car applications. … Read more