Parents with late-model Fords, do you enjoy easily restricting your teens' speed and stereo volume using Ford's MyKey programmable key fob? Are you also somewhat paranoid and controlling? Ford's experimental MyKey-style system might just be for you. Dubbed Mobii, the camera-based system uses facial recognition and remote surveillance to allow owners to keep an even tighter reign on others who drive their car—and to enable more benign gesture controls.
Mobii is still in the prototype stage, and it can detect a driver's face and load more personalized settings than even MyKey offered, no matter the key in hand. Upon spotting the owner, the Mobii system cues up his or her calendar and starts navigating to the first listed appointment, assuming the driver's really that busy. If, say, your no-good son jumps behind the wheel, the setup's camera sends a photo to your phone, where he can approve the car's ignition sequence and even set a driving time limit. Later, dad can peek into the car from his phone at random and check on junior. When time's up or at dad's whim, Mobii can act like a bait car and shut down with the friendly message "Please proceed to park the vehicle. If you ignore this request, your actions will be monitored." Basically, unless the cameras are covered, that means absolutely no hanky panky in dad's Fusion.
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Beyond the many awkward family dinners Mobii may cause, there are some genuine in-car improvements behind the system–namely, its Intel-based software is powerful enough to allow the central touchscreen to recognize who's reaching for it. This, of course, lets the passenger type addresses into the nav while simultaneously blacking out those functions for the driver. Other capabilities include recognition of hand gestures, combined with voice commands, which can be used to open the sunroof or answer the phone. For example, the driver can point at the ceiling and say "open" instead of holding a switch.
None of this is really true progress–Tesla has already reinvented standard controls by turning the car on as soon as the driver sits down and deleting physical switches for the door locks, headlamps, and sunroof, which can be swiped open using the 17-inch screen fitted to the Model S. Also, Ford's infotainment software has been marred by bug after bug–but if pointing up into space or spying on your kids excites you, the future is almost here.
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
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