Mission Impossible Archives

A pretty neat concept for people in a car’s backseat.

By Drew Johnson

Rear-seat entertainment systems have steadily improved over the last few years, but General Motors has developed a new technology that could revolutionize the entire industry.

Most rear-seat entertainment systems include a couple of screens and a DVD player, but General Motors has developed a new system that transforms a vehicle’s rear-windows into a virtual playground.

Developed through a partnership between General Motors Research and Development and the FUTURE LAB at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Israel, the new system – dubbed the Windows of Opportunity Project, or WOO for short – uses a vehicle’s rear windows as interactive displays. Students at Bezalel developed four different apps for the system, including Otto – an animated character that goes along for the ride – and Spindow, which lets the user see out of another user’s window anywhere in the world in real-time.

“Traditionally, the use of interactive displays in cars has been limited to the driver and front passenger, but we see an opportunity to provide a technology interface designed specifically for rear seat passengers,” said Tom Seder, GM R&D lab group manager for human-machine interface. “Advanced windows that are capable of responding to vehicle speed and location could augment real world views with interactive enhancements to provide entertainment and educational value.”

GM says WOO wasn’t developed with mass production in mind, but notes it could be made into a reality through the use of “ smart glass” technology. Smart glass is becoming common place in other industries, but has yet to make its debut in cars – outside of movies like Mission Impossible.

I don’t know why I love skyscrapers. I don’t live in a giant Metropolis. I will probably never work or reside in a giant high-rise. They are glass-sealed spaceships, cut off from the afternoon breeze, often appearing cold and unloving. But despite all this, I find them fascinating and awe-inspiring.

63687683 — Kingdom Tower rendered through the clouds

The announcement of the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia marks the world’s first kilometer high skyscraper to be actually built. Construction is planned ‘imminently’, and we can expect to marvel at the 157+ story goliath by the end of the decade. And remember, this comes on the heels of the completion of the Burj Khalifa, Dubai’s current flagship, and the current tallest building in the world. We can glimpse Tom Cruise doing his acrobatic thing off of the edge of this incredibly tall tower in this winter’s Mission Impossible film.

In the ever-growing race to out-do one another, Kingdom Tower will indeed tower over Burj Khalifa by at least 500 feet. Yes, it’s a classic macho size comparison, but the stakes are billion dollar construction budgets and Chicago architecture firms hired to push the very limits of engineering.

Despite all of this, we’ve still not reached the incredible Mile-High concept that Frank Lloyd Wright proposed back in 1956. The Illinois was a concept that would have reached a full mile into the heavens, and held 528 stories. Still impossible with today’s technology, though architects and engineers keep creeping towards that goal, bit by bit. Kingdom Tower is next in line.