A touchscreen that's always clean:
Touchscreens are a growing part of daily life. Not just on our phones and tablets but laptops, refrigerators, cars, and more. These days, more vehicles are coming with giant touchscreens replacing every button or dial. Eventually, everything will be a dusty screen covered with fingerprints.
The patent, spotted by AutoEvolution, is a "self-cleaning system for displays using light emitting diodes emitting invisible violet light." The idea is pretty technical, but it's essentially a regular display with some extra elements to handle dirty jobs.
Most LED screens have red, green, and blue (RGB) colored pixels, which display everything we see. However, GM's system utilizes a fourth invisible "ultraviolet" pixel. Then, GM would equip screens with a transparent photocatalyst layer that absorbs and interacts with those violet pixels and creates a chemical reaction.
That chemical reaction does several different things, including adding some moisture, then drying out the screen's surface and cleaning it of dirt, dust, debris, fingerprints, grease, and more. If this sounds familiar, a similar technology is available for self-cleaning solar panels.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22, @10:26AM (6 children)
How damaging is that UV to eyes?
Where does that moisture come from? How does the photocatalyst remove the grease and dirt in a timely manner?
It doesn't sound like the tech I know actually used for self-cleaning solar panels.
If mere wishful thinking (without evidence of potentially workable implementations) is enough for patents then they could hire some sci-fi and fantasy authors to get more patents.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22, @10:31AM (2 children)
I'd have done like self-cleaning ovens. Heat it to like 550F (285C) and ash the crud.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22, @10:40AM (1 child)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22, @06:51PM
And you can cook some green eggs and ham while you wait. Win win!
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday February 22, @11:01AM (2 children)
and how quickly will it break down and you'll be unable to see the screen, causing a $$$ fix?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22, @02:23PM
Every 5 weeks
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 22, @02:30PM
>causing a $$$ fix?
Now we come to the real question, if they can tune it for a reliable 5-10 year lifetime (under a 5 year warranty) look for it standard on all of next years' models.
As for eye damage, I believe the summary I glanced at elsewhere said it would operate when the car was empty, as in: overnight.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Opportunist on Wednesday February 22, @11:39AM (14 children)
Unless you somehow manage to give me tactile feedback on what I just pressed, a touchscreen is simply and plainly inferior to an old school button that I can reach for, feel whether I have the right one and press.
If I have to LOOK at your control while driving, your control is crap.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 22, @05:29PM (10 children)
That would cost extra. Why provide 7 tactile switches when you can have an infinitely flexible touch screen for the same cost?
Inventory control guys love it: same screen replaces 473 different parts on all 23 models in the range.
Design guys love it, they can keep revising their designs even after the first cars are in customers' hands.
Marketing guys love it, it's "here", it's "now", it's "mod", it's "what you want". No, they don't make any logical sense, but somehow they do sell more stuff.
Safety guys? Yeah, they don't say much at the meetings, they know who signs their checks.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 3, Informative) by Opportunist on Wednesday February 22, @05:48PM (9 children)
Customers love it ... the first time they buy a car that has it, next time they're desperately looking through the used car market to find a model that doesn't have that bullshit because every new car does.
And car makers lament that people for some weird reason don't want to buy new cars... wonder what could possibly be the reason.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 22, @06:34PM (7 children)
Jeez, I guess I'm just not a customer.
Our newest vehicle is a 2002, it came with an early square display panel for the radio and a (pay me now and pay me later) subscription model maps on CD navigation system. It's a full sized sedan with a trunk about a mile long and no, it doesn't have a backup camera. I'd really love to equip it with a backup camera, but it would be a significant reverse engineering problem, not to mention hours and hours of advanced craft work, to get a camera image on that screen and the integrated nature of the dashboard design on this huge car means that there's not really any place to hang an aftermarket screen that wouldn't be significantly in the way of something.
When facing a choice of replacing my 1991 Miata with a new one circa 2019, I decided instead to replace the engine with a rebuilt V6 conversion. It was more work, but $10,000 cheaper, and the resulting vehicle isn't full of 2019 planned self-destruct features. Oh, and it's significantly more powerful and fun to drive.
We're trying to talk ourselves into the idea of a new car when the 2002 finally dies, but there's just nothing compelling on the market.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22, @07:42PM (1 child)
> rebuilt V6 conversion
Which V6 and conversion hardware? What else did you need to change, front springs?
I've thought about something like this, but never started down that road.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday February 22, @11:45PM
I went with the Rocketeer, same springs (same weight) but new front subframe. Pretty much the rest of the original car remains.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 23, @09:54AM
Video, or it didn't happen. [being genuinely interested]
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday February 23, @09:08PM (3 children)
They sell a cheap backup camera that's in a license plate holder. You could put one on an Edsel.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday February 23, @10:28PM (2 children)
True, but where do you put the screen? The dashboard is full of vents, switches, and a small square screen. When we use our phone to navigate it's clipped into one of the AC vents, only blocking 2/3 of it. A landscape format screen would block most of the vent and some controls... Then we get to the air bags...
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/c28AAOSwBq9dsKRj/s-l400.jpg [ebayimg.com]
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday February 24, @03:31PM (1 child)
You don't need a permanently mounted screen. You only need it when you're backing up. An old fashioned mirror suffices for everything else.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday February 24, @06:21PM
Clearly you haven't met my wife. Every storage bin is full to overflowing, the door pockets are stuffed with water bottles full, half full and empty, when we travel the (ample to pack for six people) trunk is overflowing and additional bags fill the space under the three passengers' feet. She tried to put a bag under the driver's feet once and I went ballistic on her, that hasn't happened again. Present battle is to keep the automatic gearshift lever clear enough to get into drive, there's a pile of facemasks, sunglasses and various other crap that keeps falling in to the space to block it.
Her name is on the title, it's her car, I maintain the mechanical aspects but if I clean out all the crap a) she complains, and b) it refills: quickly.
If the backup camera would display on the radio/map screen, that would work well, but I'll be damned if I'm going to invest that much time and effort into a car which we may only keep another couple of years / 20-30K miles...
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Wednesday February 22, @10:31PM
> Customers love it
Maybe that should be the test to weed out the people who should not be driving?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RS3 on Wednesday February 22, @06:48PM (2 children)
You mean like in PCs, keyboard click- keyboard itself, or speaker clicks or beeps, and some phones have feedbacks like the little vibrator does a quick buzz at every received tap?
Would an ignition coil pulse into your seat work for you? :)
Opportunistic teasing aside, I'm with you. On my phones I turn on a setting that shows a dot wherever I tap. Even with that I'm pretty inacurate (largish fingers, resistive skin... not personally a fan of touchscreens- they have their place, but not a super-good UI for me.)
Anything that requires driver's attention away from the road should NOT pass DOT. I wish I knew what's been going on at US DOT (Department Of Transportation).
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Thursday February 23, @02:43PM (1 child)
I mean buttons that I can run my fingers over and count them. Unless you're driving a different car every other day, you probably already know that the third button on your air conditioning makes it blow to your feet and the fourth is for heating the windshield. If I can count them by brushing my fingers over them, I can operate them without looking.
Now do that with a touch screen.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday February 23, @04:46PM
You're "preaching to the choir" here brother. Actually my HVAC controls have no buttons- 3 knobs only. I drive an '02 car that's a continuation of an older design. NO RF modules, no touch screens. It came with a stupid automated lighting system that I hate, but you can override it. I wouldn't hate it IF they gave me a way to program its behavior, but nope, the attitude is that they know more than stupid me.
One of my concerns with all of this semi-automation is this: watching some "Mayday!" TV shows which chronicle mostly airplane crashes, in far too many cases the highly trained and experienced pilots become mentally lulled into complacency. They become very passive, overly dependent on autopilot, for example, and when something goes wrong, including autopilot is partially or totally disconnected, the pilots don't fully grasp the situation in time to save the plane. I wonder how often problems like that happen but somehow they do recover, IE, how many close calls there are that we the public don't even know about.
Back to cars- I'm amazed at how inefficient some cars' controls are designed and placed. I've been in far too many cars where the HVAC controls are low in the center dash column, NOT ergonomic, very dumb layout and functions. It takes a lot of driver attention to figure them out. Same for headlight controls, windshield wipers, etc. Yeah, people can learn and get used to a wide range of things, but when you drive someone else's car, or rental, or whatever, you're spending far too much time trying to figure out what should be simple controls. I might advocate for fairly simple and standard controls for all cars, especially for things like lights and windshield wipers.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday February 22, @03:53PM
Great for people who frequently throw up on their monitor!
Especially if it cleans itself before you need to touch the screen again.
I can see applications for this at ATMs, and Point of Sail terminals.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22, @04:37PM
Please make a glowing purple laptop touchpad that self cleans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22, @04:53PM
Touch here to begin.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday February 23, @09:12PM
It doesn't clean your windshield, it simply disinfects it. It's not going to remove bird shit. The same with the touchscreen, it can be filthy but sterile. It's not going to remove that Red Bull that splashed on it.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience