Touch-sensitive smart cloth could come to BMW

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Car manufacturers need to stay alert to compete in a worldwide market. Staying on top of current technology is one way car makers make an effort to stay relevant. However, as our vehicles learn to do more and more things, they need more controls and instrumentation. Touchscreens have become commonplace as a way to deal with dashboard crowding. BMW, however, is considering a different tack: smart fabrics that become touch-sensitive pads. Just touch the fabricYou can use smart fabrics to control your whole car. These fabrics, also known as e-textiles, have digital elements woven to the fabrics. A driver may control the music, heat or air conditioning with the alternating current that makes the pad sensitive. All a driver would have to do is slide a finger across the fabric or touch a particular part of the seat.Cleaning itPrevious tries at making smart textiles suffered because they could not be cleaned without destroying the functionality of the material. Not so with the new bolts of smart cloth BMW is looking at. It cleans up like any upholstery and keeps doing its job.Who developed the idea?Maksim Skorobogatiy is the Professor who let a team at the Polytechnic School of Montreal, Canada to develop a type of smart material that BMW is using. The journal New Scientist published his research. Rehmi Post is the person most associated with the material though. He developed “e-broidery” while studying at MIT for a Master of Science.Technology enhancedThe technology is not anything brand new. It is comparable to Teflon as it has woven flexible, polymer-based fibers in it, according to CNet. It has been refined quite a bit though. Many different touches will get the material to respond.When will we see it?It is unknown when this technology will start appearing in BMW vehicles, although it is known that GM and Bombardier are also looking at the technology, according to the New Scientists piece.Possible negativesThe music volume might increase too high with just the swipe of a hand. It can also change other things in the car by accident. This is the real issue with the technology that has to be worked out. Everyone with children needs to be extra cautious with the technology.As Liane Yvkoff of CNet wrote:“Parents juggling sippy cups or drivers who dine behind the wheel will tell you that this is probably a bad idea.”SourcesAOL Auto CNet Ubergizmo