Harman Envisions Car as '3rd Living Space,' With Gaming, Concert Technology

Harman touted extending headrests with built-in sound, in-cabin lighting, OLED and QLED displays and tactile transducers on a Thursday's online event. Targeting automotive OEMs, executives touted the company’s experience concepts, ExPs, for integrated automotive experiences made possible by technologies across its brands.

Global Chief Marketing Officer Ralph Santana referenced “elevated experiences,” or what Harman calls “experiences per mile (EPM).” Harman established an EPM advisory council of more than 30 companies collaborating on EPMs and how to measure them. EPMs are designed to meet consumers' desire for their car to be a "third living space," where they can make downtime more productive, he said.

Harman’s consumer research over the past year uncovered opportunities for OEMs, app developers, service providers and fleet operators to create in-vehicle consumer experiences that don’t exist today, Santana said. ExPs leverage core products across Harman automotive product lines including digital cockpit, telematics, car audio, cloud services and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). OEMs can customize their offerings, he said, and outlined applications for gaming, creative productivity and live music venues as examples of ExPs that can help OEM customers “think outside the box.”

Harman’s Gaming Intense Max solution enables an online gaming experience, built on the company’s 5G-enabled scalable compute platform, that uses an infotainment system monitor and speakers built into headrests. Transducers built into seats vibrate in sync with games, to let users “feel” game effects, said Travel Channel personality Kellee Edwards, host of the event. Cloud-based games are accessible via the 5G internet connection. In-cabin ambient lighting adjusts automatically to create an atmosphere matched to the action, she said. The platform enables multiplayer scenarios, supports multiple high-resolution QLED and OLED video displays, camera sensor inputs, ADAS and cloud-ready services, said Lynn Longo, senior vice president-digital cockpit. Displays switch to split screens for multiplayer gaming, and back-seat displays tilt and swivel for the best position.

The gaming platform leverages Harman’s in-cabin monitors, developed for safety applications, for entertainment, Longo said. Content is available via the company’s Ignite service delivery platform and online store. Echo cancellation and noise reduction algorithms address cabin noise, and Harman’s in-car communication solution enables two-way conversations between gamers, she said. Audio is delivered through headrests or headphones. The platform is hardware-agnostic so it can be offered across various SoC vendors, she said.

Harman’s Drive-Live Concert ExP brings a live concert performance to a connected vehicle. When a car connects to Drive-Live, it goes into concert mode: The main display extends, the steering wheel retracts to provide more room, headrest “wings” move forward to create immersive sound and in-cabin lighting syncs with the music. Vehicle occupants can “change the course of a show,” Edwards said, by choosing camera angles and customizing audio.

Harman platforms powering Drive-Live Concert and other ExP scenarios are the Live Interactive Virtual Experience (Live) and the Personal Audio Headrest, said Frank Moffa, general manager-car audio. Live, which uses 5G streaming, a consumer interface, a software control app and Harman lighting and sound, will enable new types of concert interactions, said Moffa, highlighting cheer-based event triggers, in-venue lighter simulations, merchandise, giveaways and fan voting. Users can see song lyrics and band member bios on vehicle displays, he said. They can personalize concert audio using Harman’s Virtual Venues and Personi-Fi app that stores users' listening preferences in the cloud.

The Personal Audio Headrest, currently available, was developed with Grammer to offer immersive and customized sound while meeting ergonomic and safety requirements, said Moffa. Audio benefits are an immersive experience, personalized surround sound, sound zones and 3D audio effects. Passengers can set their own listening profile, he said. The headset's mechanized wings can deploy or retract on demand and were designed so they don’t block critical sight lines or visibility when deployed, Moffa said.

Another EXP Harman showed Thursday -- a bit of a stretch to show Harman capabilities -- used vehicle tech to turn a car into a production studio for creating recordings that can be published from a vehicle. A retractable steering wheel allowed room for a display to extend from the dashboard. OEMs could monetize the creator studio experience through the Ignite platform, said the company.

Harman also unveiled Thursday Turbo Connect (TBOT), a 5G-based intelligent software agent that’s said to anticipate and reduce “vehicle connectivity discrepancies” on the road. When used with the company’s 5G-ready telecommunications control units and a smart antenna, TBOT addresses latency, bandwidth and technology evolution issues that can compromise the in-vehicle consumer experience, it said. A TBOT-equipped vehicle can “anticipate poor or congested connectivity, thereby mitigating any streaming or latency issues before the driver or passenger even observes a problem,” said Vishnu Sundaram, senior vice president, Harman Telematics. For consumers, that means music can stream uninterrupted, navigation functions continue, and conference calls can be held “even in areas of poor network service.”