Where is HMI display technology right now and where is it heading?

Technical Q&A with Lee Skrypchuk, Human Machine Interface Technical Specialist at Jaguar Land Rover

www.jaguarlandrover.com

DA: Where is HMI display technology right now and where is it heading?

Lee Skrypchuk: In my field - Automotive HMI, display technology is lagging behind the explosion seen in the consumer markets. The level of performance being seen in mobile phones and tablets is a step change difference to where they were 5 years ago and this level is significantly ahead of where we are in automotive.

Despite saying this there is less of a need for these high resolution displays purely from a "customer need" perspective but there is definitely a "customer want" for higher resolution, impressive displays. The key differentiator that is holding back displays in the automobile is that of the environment. The harshness and variety of environmental extremes means that standard consumer display's can't be used, therefore specific development projects need to take place.

I expect that the increased resolution trend will eventually migrate across to cars, but this must not be done at the expense of performance and in particular brightness - which in a fixed position system is critical to ensure performance in all ambient lighting conditions, this is something that consumer devices are not particularly good at.

The fixed viewing conditions and position of the displays means that from an acuity perspective there is simply not a huge amount of need for higher resolution as we are, for screens of greater than 130 DPI, already past the threshold for pixel fusion. Flat panels are becoming more prevalent in all vehicles but especially the premium car market, I expect to see more innovative display solutions being involved and especially more integration with the features within the interior.

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