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While we usually expect advances in interface design to come out of videogames, iPods or the military, new ideas are being explored in an unexpected place: car dashboards. 3M and automotive supplier Visteon have teamed up to produce a concept car dash utilizing some nifty tricks:

Field-effect switches provide a "dead-front" look when the center panel buttons do not need to be visible. However, when a user's hand nears the panel, the vehicle senses it and the buttons automatically illuminate to show a human-machine interface (HMI), according to Michael Tschirhart, Design Manager of Advanced Human-Machine Interfaces at Visteon.

A top-down cascade design defines the integrated center panel. Pressing one of the top row's buttons selects a specific mode, such as audio, climate, or navigation. Buttons on the second row then configure automatically to a set of functions matching the chosen mode. "By using this approach, the HMI allows most functions to be accessed in two button presses or fewer," said Tschirhart.

These techniques "[reduce] the overall button count by nearly 40," says Visteon Product Design Engineer Gary Jakobcic. And the flat-panel buttons provide haptic feedback--"tactile, audible, and visual"--so the users knows they've pressed a button. Read more details of the concept here.

via infibeam