Combining current products with future technologies fresh from its
labs, IBM has offered a glimpse of tomorrow's wired car
The company upgraded a 2002 Ford Explorer with wireless and
Web-based remote control technologies which it demonstrated at the
IBM Software Forum in San Francisco.
One of the features, BlueDrekar, is Big Blue's version of Bluetooth
for embedded Linux. It allows developers to use Bluetooth in small
devices with low-power processors.
An IBM engineer called Chuck Lam, used what can only be described
as an over-sized watch with BlueDrekar built in to lock and open
the demo car doors, operate the lights, the air conditioning, and
the car stereo.
Inside the car, IBM created an alarm system using Blue Eyes; a new
technology developed at IBM Labs designed to detect retina
movements and frequency of eye blinks. An infrared camera watches
the driver's eyes while the car is in motion. If the system does
not detect the eyeballs, it assumes the driver has fallen asleep
and sounds the alarm.
Other uses for Blue Eyes, according to Baldemar Fuentes, another
member of the IBM team, would be to log a driver's retina signature
and automatically adjust the mirror and seating to suit an
individual driver.
Blue Eyes works in tandem with another IBM technology called
Tspaces that allows devices to communicate and for one device to
control another. IBM also demonstrated Web-based capabilities, such
as the remote control of windows and doors.
The car was equipped with IBM's ViaVoice speech recognition
software, which was used to read and send e-mails.