In celebration of CES 2023, HARMAN held the showcase event ‘HARMAN EXPLORE’ at the Virgin Hotel in Las Vegas, USA, held from the 4th (local time). Through this, we introduced an innovative product that provides a tangible and meaningful automotive experience to the driver, passengers, and all users on the road.
At the Harman Explore Showcase, new products that enhance safety, well-being, and entertainment and can be directly applied to OEMs after verification by consumers were demonstrated. Through this, Harman emphasized that it will demonstrate what impact new technologies can have on drivers, pedestrians and the community.
From ‘Ready Care’, which measures visual and cognitive load for the first time in the industry to help drivers focus their eye activity and psychological state on driving, and ‘Ready on Demand’, the industry’s first software platform that provides branded audio experiences. All innovative products introduced by Harman, including ‘Ready on Demand’, reflect the functions and technologies that consumers expect from current vehicles as well as future vehicles.
Additionally, each new product unveiled at Harman Explore can operate independently for a specific purpose or be integrated to provide enhanced safety, well-being and entertainment experiences. The company explains that all of these technologies were developed in-house by Harman and meet the strict requirements and standards of the automobile industry, and are also in line with the value of ‘car-centered consumer experience’ pursued by Harman.
Harman’s main technologies and products unveiled at this showcase are as follows.
Ready Care
Ready Care is the industry’s first in-vehicle sensing and personalized driving intervention product that measures the driver’s eye activity, cognitive load, and vital signs to determine the level of concentration and attention to the road ahead.
Leveraging neuroscience, artificial intelligence and machine learning, Ready Care is a personalized vehicle that classifies driver behavior into focused and distracted states and helps alleviate risky situations such as stress and anxiety, distraction and drowsiness. It raises my warning signs.
This was first launched in September of last year by Harman’s acquisition of the Israeli startup CAARESYS, and then a new indoor sensor was added to detect the presence of children, and to determine the driver’s condition, such as heart rate, breathing rate, heart rate variation level, etc. A person’s vital signs can be measured non-contactly.
Ready Display
Through Neo QLED Auto, ‘Ready Display’ has virtually optimized the premium performance, price, and design required for the latest automotive displays. In recent years, as consumers have demanded the compelling, advanced visual experiences they expect from smartphones and similar technologies, Harman has collaborated with Samsung to apply innovations from leading consumer electronics products to ready displays.
As a result, Harman explained that it has created a solution that meets consumer expectations and OEM development needs by providing both visual experience and cost efficiency through the ready display.
Ready on Demand
Ready on Demand is a software platform that provides brand audio value, feature enhancements and upgrades, and a profitability model through an app that guarantees easy usability. For the first time in the industry, it provides expanded experiences and post-purchase upgrades so consumers can activate new features at any time through in-app purchases throughout the vehicle’s lifecycle.
In this way, Ready on Demand can differentiate and individualize brand audio systems as naturally as consumers add features to their smartphones. At the same time, it provides a way to expand availability so that features that were not available when the vehicle was built can be introduced later when possible.
Ready Upgrade
Just as smartphone users need software updates on their smartphones to receive the latest security features and applications, there is a growing awareness that vehicles also need regular updates. Accordingly, Harman introduced Ready Upgrade to provide OEMs and drivers with innovative software and hardware that enables efficient interface updates.
As a result, the vehicle life cycle is expanded, and a much shorter development cycle allows products tailored to consumers’ needs and preferences to be provided in a timely manner. In addition, OEM companies can shorten the time to market at a low cost through mass production-level hardware, already proven software, and low-code software development tools.
Ready Vision
Ready Vision is a technology that provides an immersive audio-visual experience through augmented reality (AR) head-up display hardware, AR software, and sensor technologies to help drivers drive more safely based on more information.
It is a solution that combines directional audio warnings and AR technology to provide information at the optimal timing with an appropriate level of visual effect. As accessibility to technology within vehicles increases, multiple screens and warnings have become specialized to increase the risk of driver distraction and eliminate the risk of cognitive load. This allows drivers to obtain optimized information that helps them focus on the road ahead.
Sound and Vibration Sensor + External Microphone
Harman’s sound and vibration sensors and external microphones cover a variety of applications that enhance safety and user experience. It can detect the sound of an emergency vehicle’s siren, listen to external voice commands from drivers or traffic controllers, and detect broken glass or impacts to the vehicle.
Sound and vibration sensors can be mounted invisibly on the outside of the vehicle, and the external microphone is designed to withstand environmental factors outside the vehicle, either single or in an array. External microphones and sensors will enable improved communication between drivers, passengers, emergency vehicles and other vehicles on the road, enabling more convenient and safer interactions for future electric and autonomous vehicles.
These new products and additional innovative technologies from Harman will be demonstrated at the Harman Explore Showcase during CES 2023. Through this Harman Explore Showcase, Harman plans to demonstrate how new products apply enhanced functions and how to implement the latest technologies into automobile-centered consumer experiences.