Uniphy's smart surface technology

Driver distraction is only going to become more common. New user interfaces that rely on touch and feel could help. Uniphy claims its optics-based approach to automotive interiors enables designers to build free-form interfaces that achieve desired functionality without compromising the vehicle’s aesthetics.

Today, it seems that all electronic products are becoming smarter. Speakers, appliances, interior and exterior mirrors, even fabrics. Cars are also on this development path, and car manufacturers want consumers to understand that the future car is a "smartphone on wheels."

But unlike smartphone user interfaces, which are built around the strict requirements of LED displays, the next generation of car interiors will have smart skins. Drivers and passengers will interact with touch surfaces built into instruments, doors, and anywhere else the automaker wants passengers to touch. Research and Markets predicts that the entire smart surface market will exceed $100 billion by 2026, with more than 40 companies developing related technologies.

Creating interfaces on the surface of a product can reduce component and assembly costs while increasing reliability. Seamless interfaces provide no ingress for moisture and dust, which can damage components and shorten product life.

Industrial designers are also winners, because smart surfaces free them from having to design around rectangular UI modules. They can design free-form UIs directly on the product surface, with control points conforming to the shape of the product.

Uniphy of Leeds, England, was founded six years ago, and CEO Jim Nicholas said the company is relying on its "display-agnostic" smart surface technology to control everything from home appliances to car air conditioning, entertainment systems and electric seats. He said Uniphy's Canvya technology can be used on glass or plastic to create surfaces of any shape. Ambient visual effects can be designed in "because the surface itself becomes a screen." 3D dials and buttons are shaped by the surface of the product.

Uniphy's car concept renderings show a plastic sheet extending from the instrument panel down to the center console, with various controls embedded in the plastic sheet for functions such as entertainment systems and air conditioning controls. Nicholas further introduced that, for example, the door panel can also serve as a control surface with buttons and sliders to control music or seat position. These surfaces also have zoom functions.

Uniphy’s smart surfaces can be smooth or textured if needed, such as in an in-car environment. Nicholas describes the grooves, tactile 3D protrusions and dimples integrated into the car’s smart surfaces. These textures, coupled with tactile feedback, allow the driver to control functions by feel while continuing to keep their eyes on the road ahead.

In March, Hyundai said its European Technical Center was working with Uniphy to develop intelligent HMI "to revolutionize the driver and passenger experience". The technology combines non-conductive finger pressure touch sensing with physical HMI functions, including dials, buttons and sliders. The two companies said the solution integrates tactile feedback, touch gestures and proximity recognition, and can be integrated with popular voice control engines.

Nicholas cited the typical 3-5 year production timeline for the auto industry, envisioning Hyundai Motor reaching production in 2025-2026. But he said the disruption of the industry by electric vehicles could work in Uniphy's favor, potentially shortening the timeline to 1.5 years.

Also in March, Uniphy announced a partnership with automotive interiors company Grupo Antolin. The two companies are working on in-car user interfaces using "touch contours" such as vertical or circular sliders and dials with concave/convex touch surfaces, as well as touch/gesture and proximity recognition integrated with display and lighting solutions.

Uniphy started with the automotive industry because automakers are “more willing to work with companies at the same stage of Uniphy’s development,” Nicholas said. The automotive industry also tends to showcase “megatrends,” making it a good platform for understanding the competitive landscape, he said.

The company’s vision for its free-form 3D smart surfaces extends beyond automotive. Nicholas said it’s “close” to working with several appliance manufacturers on PoC designs, and could move into volume production with one or more of them in the second half of 2023. He said device integration provides a way to validate the company’s “cost justification” and its manufacturing process. The CEO expects a partnership announcement later this year.

Uniphy’s main competitor is in-mold electronics, which uses injection-molded plastics embedded with conductive films, sensors, actuators and other components, which Nicholas calls “electric-field-based technology.”

Dupont describes its in-mold electronics technology as creating a "smart surface" that prints capacitive switches directly on the surface of the device, integrating electrical connections, capacitive switches, curved touch surfaces, sensors, LEDs and screens. Dupont said that by eliminating the buttons, sliders and wires used in traditional interfaces, the thickness of the overhead console design can be reduced from 25mm to 3mm, the number of mechanical parts from 64 to 2, the weight can be reduced by 77%, and the space occupied can be reduced by 25%.

In contrast, Uniphy's technology is optically based. When a finger touches the touch layer, the light is scattered, reflected or refracted. Nicholas said the technology can be as thin as "a few millimeters" and there is "no stuff" in the active area.

Uniphy's patented technology uses light sensing and low-power electronics for optical touch, reducing false triggering and sensitivity to vibration, electromagnetic fields, extreme temperatures or surface contaminants.

Canvya's smart surface technology uses a three-layer composite board with an optical decoupler sandwiched between the touch layer and the detection layer. The company's CEO said that the touch layer has light-emitting diodes that produce light at near-infrared frequencies. When the smart surface is touched, part of the light is guided through the detection layer and received by the photodiode sensor. The algorithm calculates other input data such as speed, gestures and pressure.

One of the best features of optical technology is that it works with gloves, unlike the capacitive touch screen of smartphones, which cannot register gloved finger presses. This makes Uniphy's smart surface technology very useful in industrial and medical applications that require specialized gloves, and can also be used in cars in cold weather.

Nicholas believes Uniphy's solution is cost-effective for manufacturers because "we are just using standard materials and mainstream manufacturing processes." At just a 20% increase in cost, the doors become a premium feature, which is just "the incremental cost of going from a decorative trim to a functional trim."

Nicholas said that car interiors often suffer from a "mismatch" of different HMIs. Uniphy's technology can become the "DNA of an art form" for a car company's signature look. Door panels "transform" from being a decorative element with a single function to being both decorative and functional.

“But in the automotive world, if you don’t have a cost argument, forget it.”