Harman recently announced a project with BMW to pioneer some novel infotainment systems. With 19 different OEM brands and new awards worth some US$13 billion, Matthew Beecham caught up with Harman’s senior vice president of global engineering Kelei Shen to discuss the infotainment manufacturer’s Next Big Thing.
Could you tell us a little about the background of the project?
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For over ten years we have enjoyed a strong relationship with BMW. We supply a range of infotainment products from premium sound systems through to navigation systems. Internally, we called this High Head Unit, ‘Project NBT’ or Next Big Thing. It really is that important a product and step beyond traditional head units. It forms the core of ConnectedDrive that was announced in late 2012.
What makes the High Head Unit the core of the ConnectedDrive experience?
The unit features a DVD drive, 200GB hard disc drive and a high-resolution 1280×480 display with 1.3GHz processor. It is packed with ‘industry firsts’: drivers can dictate short emails, texts or voice memos that can be sent later or instantly via mobile uplink. To simplify connectivity to services such as Facebook or internet radio, it also includes an embedded BMW iPhone App with the option to load third party apps in the future. Crucially, we believe it delivers a seamless experience for users notably for connectivity. And through novel HMI strategies, we believe this has been achieved safely and intuitively.
Is there any particular feature that illustrates that final point?
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By GlobalDataYes, the High Head Unit has a navigation system that can be operated by voice control; drivers can simply enter their destination by using a “one-shot” voice command. This greatly simplifies the process of entering navigation solutions. For example, drivers no longer have to enter their county, then city and finally street – they can simply say the address in full which will enter it into the navigation system. A particularly innovative function is how the system can interpret the different ways addresses are verbalised in various languages.
We also introduced another interesting feature known as High Guiding that automatically provides guidance information for the next navigation instruction and presents it across the system’s displays once the car is within range of the junction or turning. This ensures drivers are made aware seamlessly of their next manoeuvre which, when combined with traffic and road safety warnings, helps keep them fully informed.
With all these features there must have been some challenges in combining them in one unit?
We have specified a 2DIN unit but you are right in that it required a lot of packaging work. One of the other challenges was ensuring that the components [remained] cool in the compact unit. Novel software, including power management helped us to keep the unit to this size.
You mentioned HMI and user interfaces; what advantages have you made in that respect?
With this platform we could offer a rich user interface that is capable of displaying a variety of navigation information such as 3D topographical maps with details of the surrounding landscape that change views depending on the car’s proximity to the next navigation manoeuvre.
All three displays in the car are linked so for example, navigation features are displayed on the cluster, central and head-up displays. This means important information will always be easily visible to the driver wherever they glance.
We also specified the NVIDIA EMP9 graphics processor and combined it with Intel’s 1.3GHz processor to enhance the detail and clarity of the information being displayed and to improve on the performance of the HMI.
You’ve spoken about user interface from a visual point. What about connectivity and control for various external devices?
Data suggests that sales of smartphones will reach 900 million this year. Extensive in-car connectivity to these devices is therefore becoming an expectation in modern vehicles. Integrated connectivity can also help create a safer driving experience by reducing the need to fumble around with a smartphone while driving.
By harnessing the capabilities of Nuance’s Dragon Drive we can offer improved voice control for six different languages. This allows drivers to answer calls, dictate memos, send emails and text messages, all while keeping their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel. As I said these are industry firsts for infotainment systems.
For this product, we added this functionality to enhance safe communication options for drivers. For example: to safely receive a text without taking their eyes off the road ahead, drivers can have an incoming message read out aloud by the on-board text-to-speech technology. They can then respond completely through voice control meaning that their hands remain safely on the steering wheel.
How did Harman deliver the level of connectivity in the Head Unit?
[Using] intuitive smartphone connectivity, we developed a piece of middleware which supports Bluetooth, WLAN, Edge and UTMS for a range of connectivity options, while a simplified Bluetooth pairing system means up to two phones can be connected to the unit simultaneously.With all these features, how will Harman manage the challenge of future-proofing?
This is not easy. New Apps can be created in months and the latest cutting-edge consumer technology products have a lifespan of one to two years. In contrast, car development has a timeframe of four to five years. Fortunately, as Harman has a large presence in both the professional and consumer electronics sectors, through our subsidiaries we are afforded a glimpse into tomorrow’s technology trends and developments and plan for this.
As an example, this head unit includes both digital and analogue tuners including DAB, SDARS, HD and DMB, to offer future-proof compatibility against analogue to digital switchovers. We will also be enabling third-party app development for our infotainment systems which will allow developers to add extra features to the system’s software without the need to change the unit’s hardware.
Which BMW cars are the unit fitted to?
The remainder of this interview is available on just-auto’s QUBE research service
