A holographic touchscreen is part of an interior-of-the-future concept that BMW will display next month at CES (formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show). Dubbed BMW HoloActive Touch, the system is described as “a virtual touchscreen,” with a free-floating display that responds to finger gestures and provides “what the driver perceives as tactile feedback.”
BMW characterizes the technology as combining elements of a head-up display, its own gesture controls, and a traditional touchscreen. The virtual display is a projection that appears to the right of the steering wheel above the center console. It would allow the driver to control vehicular functions as well as those of BMW Connected apps.
The idea would seem to build on the Air Touch technology that BMW displayed in an i8 roadster concept at last year’s CES. That version required virtual touch commands to be confirmed by the press of a physical button. No word of that here.
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HoloActive Touch is one element of what BMW is calling its “i Inside Future study,” which is claimed to be a look into the future of automobile interiors. As such, the company is making no promises of how soon it will be before we’re able to virtually stroke a hologram in a real BMW, but it p...