Toyota’s 'Window To The World' Concept: Others Left Behind?

Toyota recently displayed its “Window to the World” concept for its vehicles at Autoworld Museum in Brussels, Belgium. In this concept, Toyota plans to provide a great traveling experience for passengers sitting in the rear. The demonstration was a part of ACEA “Our Future Mobility Now” exhibition. The idea is to provide passengers an interactive window screen that would help people to interact with the outer world. According to reports, University of Glasgow is working on #-Link-Snipped-# and proposes to use this design in Fiat cars by May 2012. For now, Toyota has surged ahead of its competitors by actual demonstration of their interactive window concept.

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A team of engineers and designers from Toyota Motor Europe’s (TME) Kansei Design Division developed the interactive window concept. They got excellent consultation from Copenhagen institute of interactive Design (CIID). The result was the development of a window that aims at fulfilling following goals:

[*]Drawing in Motion – You can draw on the rear window screen using your fingers only. And this drawing will be unlike any ordinary drawing on other touchsreens. It will blend with the exterior view one has, moving from one end of the window to the other as car zooms ahead.
[*]Zooming into captured moments in time – Have you ever thought you could just zoom-in on far objects with the help of just an interactive window and your fingers? Yes! Toyota provides you this feature in the screen.
[*]Translating the world in a local language –Just select an object. Then choose your language and give the object a prick! You will not only see how the object is spelt but will also learn how to pronounce it. Excellent feature for tourists.
[*]Augmented Distances – Innovative use of tracking sensors inbuilt in car enables passengers to gauge the distance of an object from the car just by selecting it on the screen.
[*]Virtual Constellations – The roof of car will be able to display virtual constellations with detailed information by side. Kids are going to love it.

This concept falls under rear entertainment systems that aim to keep kids busy on long road trips. This will help the parents to focus more on driving than to answer endless questions from their kids. The excellent use of augmented reality hopes that kids will now learn more by interacting with their environment than just listening to music or reading books straddled in rear seat. Passengers will now learn more about objects they can see outside; the translation tool will be beneficial. The Kansei Design Division has been contributing to Toyota’s European Research and Development since 2004. This division is the heart and soul of Toyota’s large number of #-Link-Snipped-# for its passengers. As of date, Toyota’s plans to launch this interactive window concept in their vehicles are not clear. But Toyota’s display of innovative products from time to time is surely raising the platform for all car makers.


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