The HMI4auto project’s overall objective has been to optimize, develop and industrialize our product family of four aXiom silicon chips. These aXiom chips support touchscreen solutions with display sizes ranging from 5” to over 35”. Successfully implementing and executing the HMI4auto project will qualify TouchNetix as a full-range supplier of touchscreen Human-Machine Interface chips (HMI) for the automotive industry.
Road and traffic accidents are a major concern and a public security problem with a heavy financial burden for both global and national economies. Driver distraction is a growing problem responsible for 10-20%, due to the increasing connectivity and automation in current vehicles leading to higher levels of both qualitative and quantitative information that drivers need to deal with while driving. To avoid distractions, the automotive industry needs to develop new and more intuitive HMI combining complementary technologies such as advanced functionalities in touchscreens, voice recognition systems, and head-up displays. Safety-enhancing functionalities for touchscreens are requested by the automotive industry, such as 3D proximity, 3D hover, 3D surface guided touch, force sensing, and haptic feedback.
Our innovative and market disruptive aXiom chip products have been developed from inception using a new holistic approach tailored for the automotive market requirements. aXiom enables the following value-adding features: 1) up to 30 times higher Signal-to-Noise Ratio, enabling distance sensing, specifically; a) 3D proximity detecting the driver’s hand or finger at 10-15 cm outside the screen that triggers the user interface (UI) to change or add relevant menu selections; b) 3D hover detecting the driver’s finger 5-6 cm above the screen and identifies its position, for the UI to highlight or enlarge an icon/symbol or a key; and c) 3D surface touch allowing touchscreens to be built using finger-guiding overlays or curved displays. 2) closed-loop haptic for low latency user feedback, optimized for automotive use; 3) force sensing providing a two-level touch system where icons are activated only after a certain pressure and intent are applied. 4) wide support for larger touchscreens; 5) freedom in display design and flexible aspect ratios (e.g. 1:1 - 16:10 - 15:1).
The HMI4auto objectives have been to bring the first TRL7 prototype of aXiom to full market readiness (industrialisation, qualification (to TRL8; WP1-2), expand the product portfolio to four aXiom chip products (TRL8; WP1-2). aXiom has been verified in an operational environment (to TRL9; WP3)) following technology validation in a real automotive OEM program. A wide range of market maturation activities planned in WP4 were conducted while our experienced management team has overseen the full project implementation and assure the objectives are reached (WP5).
