Gently, the driver can answer or hang up the phone with a wave of his hand; just slowly move the finger to adjust the volume of the music in the car entertainment information system without direct view and touch control interface. Drivers can focus on the road in front of their eyes. The use of gestures to control the screen in science fiction movies is now becoming a reality and is very useful in cars. Recently, Global Market Insight (GMI) According to a research report issued by the consulting agency, it is expected that by 2024, the global automotive gesture recognition market will exceed $13 billion.
In recent years, after speech recognition, gesture recognition has become another hot human-computer interaction method, which has been widely used in many fields. Especially in the field of smart cars, car manufacturers are increasingly hoping to implement functionality in cars. Safety technology to reduce the driver's distracting behavior. Gestures are a combination of human hands or hands and arms. They are usually divided into static gestures and dynamic gestures. In simple terms, static gestures only need to judge gestures at a certain point in time. The shape feature can be, while the dynamic gesture needs to collect continuous motion for a period of time, analyze, and add time information and motion characteristics.
Passenger car market demand is strong
According to GMI's research report, from 2017 to 2024, the annual compound growth rate (CAGR) of the automotive gesture recognition market is expected to exceed 42%. Among them, the passenger car market is dominant, with more than 32 million during the above forecast period. A passenger car uses gesture recognition technology.
The rising demand for infotainment systems, navigation systems and multimedia functions will stimulate the rapid development of the automotive gesture recognition market. The global market demand for mid- to high-end passenger cars is increasing, coupled with consumers' preference for advanced technologies and increasing safety awareness. These will further increase the demand for gesture recognition technology in the passenger vehicle market. Relatively speaking, the interest in gesture recognition systems in the heavy commercial vehicle segment will be weaker.
According to GMI, touch systems account for the largest share of automotive gesture recognition products, exceeding $550 million in 2016, and the annual compound growth rate of touch systems will reach 44% by 2024. It is estimated that hand recognition And fingerprint recognition is the fastest growing segment of the automotive gesture recognition market, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 43% from 2017 to 2024, and their growth is attributed to advances in touch sensing technology and time-of-flight (TOF) sensors. Constantly.
From the market point of view, automotive gesture recognition technology is currently dominated by a small number of traditional enterprises, and its high growth potential continues to attract new players, making competition intensify. Large enterprises are focusing on acquiring or investing in small businesses to obtain the latest technology. For example, Google acquired gesture recognition startup Flutter, Qualcomm acquired GestureTek, part of the business and R&D department of GestureTek, and Facebook's virtual reality headset manufacturer Oculus acquired virtual reality gestures and 3D technology startup Nimble VR and 13th Lab, Zhongyin acquired part of the equity of Israel gesture recognition company EyeSight.
GMI predicts that Europe is expected to dominate the automotive gesture recognition market in the next 3 to 5 years, thanks in large part to the high penetration rate of the BMW 5 Series, 7 Series and other high-end vehicles in the region. Europe's mature automotive industry And the production of large-scale cars may further promote the expansion of the automotive gesture recognition market. According to GMI's forecast, the annual compound growth rate of the North American automotive gesture recognition market will exceed 40%. One of the reasons is that OEMs continue to increase R&D investment, and Consciously guide consumers' preferences.
Car manufacturers actively layout
With the advancement of sensor technology, the automotive gesture recognition market is expected to achieve geometric progression. Many automakers, component manufacturers, and technology companies are actively deploying. Currently, the use of cameras for gesture recognition has become one of the configurations of some high-end models. BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and many other vehicle manufacturers have added gesture recognition technology to production cars or concept cars, Delphi, ZF, Bosch, mainland and other component manufacturers, as well as Google, The strength of technology giants such as Microsoft in the field of gesture recognition is not to be underestimated.
In 2016, BMW took the lead in introducing gesture recognition technology into its best-selling 7-series sedan, enabling drivers to complete volume, navigation, call, air conditioning settings, etc. with simple gestures without touching the screen. After that, BMW again The AirTouch multimedia system has been released to control navigation systems, audio-visual entertainment and communication devices through more human gestures. Volkswagen Golf 7 also introduces a similar system, through gesture sliding control menu options, radio stations, scrolling playlists and browsing media libraries, The operation options will have a glow prompt, as well as visual interactive feedback.
At the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) at the beginning of last year, Bosch introduced a gesture control technology with haptic feedback, using ultrasonic sensors to sense whether the driver's hand is in the correct position and making tactile feedback on gestures. At the CES earlier this year, ZF showed a steering wheel with integrated gesture control 7-inch touch screen. This conceptual steering wheel can be displayed by icons, combined with gesture control, to enhance the interaction between the driver and the vehicle. Fu believes that this is an important step in the development of autonomous driving.
At the 2018 Chongqing International Auto Parts and Related Services Exhibition (CAPE 2018), which opened on September 19th, the German parts supplier Weibast, which produces automotive sunroofs, heating systems, etc., showed a top mounting tilt Sliding panoramic sunroof, it is used in Mercedes-Benz E-class models. One of the biggest highlights is gesture recognition. By palm up, down, right, and left, you can open skylights, close skylights, open roller blinds, close roller blinds. Waiting for the operation. The reporter of China Auto News experienced it on the spot and found that as long as the palm movement speed is not too fast, the sunroof and roller blind switch can be successfully completed. This means that if the driver needs to open the sunroof when driving, You don't have to look for buttons. You can turn the sunroof on and off with just one gesture. The driver's eyes can stay in front of the whole process, which naturally improves safety.
Integrated landing in the vehicle system
In recent years, the number of electronic components and sensors mounted on automobiles has increased, which is conducive to the promotion of gesture recognition technology. In the actual landing of gesture recognition, it is often integrated with speech recognition, facial recognition, etc., becoming an important human-computer interaction. Component. Just like the above mentioned Weibast panoramic sunroof, according to the on-site staff, in addition to gesture recognition, you can also switch the sunroof and roller blind through voice recognition, support Mandarin, English and even Shanghai dialect.
Emerging technology companies also use gesture recognition as part of their business. Artificial intelligence startup Untouch uses 3D gesture recognition and 3D face recognition technology to achieve contactless gesture control, identity authentication and driver status monitoring in the car's smart cockpit. Among them, the 3D gesture recognition technology recognizes the relevant nodes of the hand and the 3D gestures through the visual sensor to realize the non-contact gesture control, and the disappearance of the physical buttons also makes the interior design of the car more simple and beautiful.
At present, many car manufacturers integrate gesture recognition as one of the functions into the vehicle system. For example, BMW's new 5-series plug-in hybrid vehicle is equipped with a five-dimensional intelligent human-computer interaction system that includes speech recognition, gesture recognition, and touch. Control screen, iDrive system and thermal buttons. According to GMI data, as of the end of 2017, more than 3/4 of the global sales of automotive gesture recognition systems will be covered by multimedia, in-vehicle infotainment systems or navigation systems. Overall, At the actual landing level, gesture recognition technology is being integrated with hardware such as automotive central control systems, smart rearview mirrors, and HUD.
At present, the human-computer interaction of automobiles is more and more diversified, and touch, speech recognition, facial recognition and gesture control are more and more frequent. The collaborative application of gesture recognition and speech recognition is becoming more and more frequent. Guang. Although the car voice recognition technology is becoming more and more mature, there are still some limitations and errors for the continuous commands that are difficult to quantify, such as adjusting the volume and playing the progress of the movie. Gesture recognition can realize the in-car answering by different gestures. , adjust the volume, change songs, control navigation and other functions, to achieve a variety of scenarios including the main and the first passenger, the rear passenger interaction. A variety of human-computer interaction complement each other, our car life will become more convenient, easier .