TRW Automotive Holdings (TRW) has unveiled its new capacitive touchpad sensor including advanced handwriting recognition software to help drivers and passengers coordinate and operate several functions within the car.
The new touchpad will improve the human machine interface (HMI) and offers advanced recognition functionality and smaller packaging and greater design freedom within the driver cabin.
TRW advanced engineering manager for body control systems Frank Koch said the increase in mobile connectivity has inspired the company to create a single point of contact between the driver and applications used in the vehicle which will enhance user-friendliness, comfort and help improve safety.
"TRW research has shown that the use of in-vehicle handwriting recognition operation reduces driving deviations by 78% compared with the alphanumeric keyboard method," Koch said.
"One of the key features is the system's ability to recognize written inputs and allow an intuitive and fast handling of applications.
"For the first time, the user is able to input symbols such as Chinese characters without the need of writing aids that normally transcribe those characters into the Latin alphabet."
The company said that the new handwriting-recognition touch pad technology will be ready for production by 2012.
