BMW parked a car at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that could turn from white to grey while visitors watched. The concept is called the iX Flow, and BMW billed it as the first car that changes color. It borrows the electronic ink used in e-readers.
“This is really energy efficient colour change using the technology e-ink,” said BMW research engineer Stella Clarke. “So we took this material, it’s kind of a thick paper, and our challenge was to get this on a 3D object like our cars.”
How the skin works
The body wear is a wrap fitted to the car’s contours. Millions of microcapsules, each as wide as a human hair, are embedded in the coating. Some hold positively charged black pigment, others negatively charged white. An electric field pulls one or the other to the surface of each capsule, much as in an electronic paper display.
The wrap is made of many e-paper segments, shaped with generative design methods so each one follows the lines of the body. They were cut by laser, applied to the car, connected to a power supply, then heated and sealed.
A phone app controls the changes for now. Clarke said a dashboard button, or even hand gestures, could take over later. The car can also take on patterns such as racing stripes. The display at CES could only switch between grey and white, though BMW said the technology would be expanded to a full spectrum of colors.
Holding a color costs nothing. According to BMW, energy goes in only when the shade changes.
Heat and mood
Clarke named the sun as her favorite use. “On a hot, sunny day like today, you could switch the colour to white to reflect sunlight,” she said. “On a cold day, you could switch it black to absorb the heat.” Stirworld, which covered the unveiling, added that this could ease air conditioning demand and, in an electric car, stretch range.
Clarke, who heads the iX Flow project, also pitched it as self-expression. “Similar to fashion or status ads on social media channels, the vehicle then becomes an expression of different moods and circumstances in daily life,” she said.
Frank Weber, the BMW board member for development, said in a press statement: “Digital experiences won’t just be limited to displays in the future. There will be more and more melding of the real and virtual. With the BMW iX Flow, we are bringing the car body to life.”
BMW showed the car alongside a new Digital Art Mode for its My Modes feature, which lets drivers change the interior with artwork by the Chinese multimedia artist Cao Fei. The BMW Group says it is developing the technology for exterior and interior customization in future production models.
Sources
- BMW unveils concept car that changes colour
- BMW unveils revolutionary new iX Flow with colour changing E Ink technology
