Mercedes Invents Floating Crystal Ball To Control Infotainment

Manufacturers are continually striving to evolve the automobile. While the latest powertrain revolution is seeing combustion swapped out for electrification, inside the cabin, we're seeing a technological revolution of a different sort. Our dependence on smartphones and technology is seeing automakers turning our in-car infotainment suites into extensions of our smartphones and smart homes through the integration of services like Amazon Alexa, Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto. Android is being used as theoperating system of choicein some systems, and manufacturers are throwing in more screens by the day.

Mercedes-Benz is one such automaker, introducing tech like the56-inch Hyperscreento the all-electricEQS Sedan. But the German carmaker is taking infotainment a step further with a revolutionary way of controlling your infotainment. Forget touchscreens and voice control, you can now control your infotainment via a floating crystal ball.

CarBuzzhas uncovered patent filings for the new technology with the World Intellectual Property Office. In the documents, Mercedes-Benz describes an invention relating "to a control device for controlling vehicles functions… which can be actively actuated by a person for control." The patent further goes on to suggest that the control "is designed as an object which floats in a regulated magnetic field."

Accompanied by several diagrams, we see a spherical control floating above the center console. Using magnetic field technology, the ball can hover and spin freely, and a sensor unit would be able to detect - we presume via light, movement, proximity, and gyro sensors - the actuation and input of the controller.

A floating ball controller could be scrolled in numerous directions and could be pushed around like a joystick while depressing the controller could act as a function to click on or select a menu item.