Heisterkamp Consulting

I have another thing, the best part is no part, the best process is no process. It weighs nothing, costs nothing, can't go wrong.
So, as obvious as that sounds, the best part is no part.

Elon Musk (Boca Chica, Texas, on 28 September 2019)
… and, a part that doesn't exist cannot transmit diseases …

Cars have plenty of sensors for driver interaction. By combining them we can make better use of them. This is called multimodality.

Multimodality provides robust interaction. It makes buttons go away.

Voice, camera, haptics - each modality can set a context in which others define a command. Modality fusion makes these interaction modes very robust, provided the time constraints are set properly and the appropriate dialogic feedback is in place.

Multimodal inferaction is cool! It is like Harry Potter, just without the wand. You look at one region of the car, say the word and: iIt happens. This is possible through the combination of the driver distraction monitoring camera and speech recognition, both of which already are on board.

Multimodal interaction now only requires a bit of software and, of course, the expertise. Let me help you save time and effort. I did set up demonstrators and experimented with prototypes. Having worked for Mercedes-Benz in research and development for a long time, now, rather than retire, I want to make the possibilities available to the industry.

A German Court of Appeal confirmed in March 2020 that it may be unlawful to use features buried in touch-screen menus (here: of a Tesla Model 3) while driving. To really make buttons go away, the industry now has to explore other options than bury the functionality in deep menus. I can help with that.

For Daimler AG, I made a number of inventions. Some are published, some became patent applications. These now are either disclosed or even granted. Daimler AG holds the exploitation rights, but I am the inventor. As the patent disclosures are public, I am at liberty to discuss the contents with anyone.

We can set up end-to-end examples for multimodal interaction in the car together. I trust these examples will convince you and your management that you want to offer multimodality to your customers and save on buttons. One can then approach Daimler AG to negotiate licensing.

The gesture interaction for controlling the sunroof (start the video at 00:00) and the gaze interaction to select the mirror to be adjusted (10:50) have now been officially disclosed as elements of the new MBUX for the 2020 S-Class.