Accord, very very nice car pics but, y the gigantic 15" montior in the front dash I think thats a bit much the 5" montior is just fine i think for the stuff their running in the pics but, if it would be hooked up to a computer like I think I see in the trunk area then its all fine but, anyways thanks for the pics man.

 

This will never become a production car, it was just produced to show off all of the new technology.

 

Heh...heh, heh. My friends and I are rigging stuff like this to whatever cars we drive, but it'll be removeable, off-the-shelf, and probably a lot uglier.

Just think of it...Quake 3 for your rear seat passengers over a car-to-car wireless LAN going down the highway at 60 mph...droool.

 

somethings do make it to production.

 

Accord, very very nice car pics but, y the gigantic 15" montior in the front dash I think thats a bit much the 5" montior is just fine i think for the stuff their running in the pics but, if it would be hooked up to a computer like I think I see in the trunk area then its all fine but, anyways thanks for the pics man.


.........I mentioned this in one my earlier posts. I had previously integrated a laptop which sits in my trunk with the command system in my car and can control ythe laptop with a wireless mouse. The reason that they are using larger monitors is that the resolution on the small LCD monitors is not able to show fine print as in a map or on a web page. It will look great from afar, but when you come close you cannot make out the words. No, this is not an easy problem to solve.


Ted

 

It's intensely easy to solve, it just takes a freakin load of patience and a good deal of cash.

The LCD resolution isn't the issue, its the size of the text at high resolution yet small display size. I'd love to see someone read 12 pt font on a 640x480 iPAQ-size screen from 2 feet away. It's not the easiest thing to do.

A laptop? Eh, not likely. Doesn't have the pure power, nor the thermal capabilities of a desktop. That, and you can't use multiple monitors, etc.

For instance, my concept calls for a camera capture system from the interior of the car. Five small PCB cameras recording at SDTV resolution mounted in fairly obscure locations. Wireless would be an option, otherwise just have the dealer or a car guy run the cables underneath the ceiling upholstery. Mount on on the driver's front corner, another one in the back facing forward (focused on the highway), and another two facing outwards from the back (left and right). Not only is this useful for (useless) webcams, etc, but you can stream this video to a storage computer at home through a wireless net connection (Ricochet), so that in the event of a theft, you have a picture of the schmuck who stole your car. The fifth is mounted either on the trunk or in the back, facing backwards, in the event of a collision, comp theft, or just an Infiniti-style backup-cam.

Either convince the MB dealer to rig up a VGA/RCA/S-vid, or even a direct link to the COMAND LCD, or you can mount a swingaround 10-12" 1024x768 consumer LCD to come in front of the COMAND unit. Run the cables underneath the upholstery to the trunk. Patch the DC power from the cig adaptor to the trunk also, and place a high-capacity inverter there to handle the computer and other AC devices.

Now, you stick a Matrix Orbital 20x3 character LCD on top of the console somewhere, either in the instrument cluster, or on top of the center console area. Rig it for constant backlighting, and you have a basic information device when you want stock quotes, news, or nav information (speed, performance, whatever you want to rig your computer for). If you want a really impressive setup, you put in a 5" SDTV resolution display, patch that into the computer's graphics card and a multiswitch for the cameras. That way, by simply pressing a button, you can switch between a multifunction display from the computer (MapPoint, custom app, etc) , or any of the CCTV cameras in the car.

Input is handled through either cabin-mounted microphones for rudimentary voice control, or a wireless mouse and keyboard mounted somewhere unobtrusive. For a complete whoa look to the install, make the 10-12" LCD a touchscreen. Makes it a lot easier that way too.

Rear passengers are taken care of by two Viewsonic AirPanel 1000 wireless touchscreen monitors. These are patched into a tiny PC running Windows 2000 Server. The concept is simply for email and basic web surfing, and any non-motion-video activity.

For the main car PC, choose a nice high-perf system, preferably based either off of a Falcon Northwest Mach V job. Intel chips are a must because of the thermal requirements (AMD chips run hotter). You may need to run in a water-cooling system because of the lack of ventilation in the trunk. In which case, simply run the tubing up to the front, and put either a tubing mesh or a small radiator box (fan+radiator+enclosure) underneath the passenger seat. Shock mounting is necessary if the car is in an environment where ABC doesn't cut it, or you don't have ABC. In which case, just figure something out. It doesn't have to be too complex. Details arent' important, it depends on what you want to do with the PC.

My concept calls for the PC to handle peer-to-peer wireless car-to-car networks between 802.11b access points (these handle the monitors as well). This allows any car with a similar system to patch into this car to serve as part of an intercom or videoconferencing system, and the possibility exists for Quake/Unreal/HalfLife tourneys between car passengers. This would be accomplished by having the passengers use wireless-enabled laptops or PDAs.

Internet access is provided by a computer with a Ricochet modem, which shares the connection with whatever is on the network. Ricochet runs at about 150k generally. This is about three times faster than your average dialup connection, but wireless. Service is supposed to run $50 a month for unlimited access.

The possibilities of such a system are endless and they are easily expandable. If you're interested in pulling one of these stunts yourself, feel free to leave me a private message or email, and I'll be happy to help you plan or brainstorm your own system. A degree of computer ability is required however.

-Jordan

 

Oh, these guys cheated... they used three comps, one for each display....bums. Best performance, but it's designed as a business car. You can just as easily cram 2-3 users into a windows terminal server box on w2k.

 

How does the interior of that thing get cooled? I haven't seen any air-con vents in any of the pictures.

 

If you're talking about the interior of the car, you just haven't looked hard enough. They haven't removed any major air vents. The ones in the B-pillars are still there, I'm assuming the armrest one is still there, just obscured by the screens. The dash ones on the side are undoubtedly still there.

Now as far as the computers themselves go, they may have very well used Transmeta Crusoe processors (its not unheard of) to keep thermal loads to nil. Otherwise they rerouted A/C somehow to the trunk too. But I don't think this thing was designed to work in the hot desert sun anytime soon. So it could have just been nothing, but I doubt that.