Towards interactive car interiors - the active armrest

Modern cars are often equipped with touch-based interaction systems, such as touchscreens or touchpads. However, they are typically exposed within the car environment. In this paper, we present the Active Armrest. This regular car armrest is equipped with capacitive proximity sensors that combine limb detection and recognition of gestures. The sensors are designed for invisible integration into existing environments and can be used to create interactive surfaces in a car. We investigate two different types of gestural interaction, touch gestures with the arm lifted and free-air finger gestures performed above the interactive area, while the arm stays on the armrest. The system was integrated into a prototype and tested for gesture recognition precision and usability.