Las Vegas (Nevada) – German auto giant BMW unveiled cars at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that change their color with the push of a button and within seconds.
The company showcased its revolutionary first-of-its-kind technology with the new, 100 percent electric ix-flow concept car.
The concept of personalization is currently very popular in the automotive industry. But while most efforts focus on the interior and software tweaks to remember the driver’s preferred vehicle settings, BMW is bringing the concept of personalization to the car’s exterior.
BMW relies in its dazzling presentation on technology on electronic ink.
The technology is the electronic paper technology used in e-readers, such as the Amazon Kindle.
The ink is placed in microcapsules, the thickness of a human hair. The white pigments inside these nanocapsules are negatively charged, and the black pigments have a positive charge.
The switch the user presses shifts the electric field around the capsules, causing some of the pigment to be pushed to the surface, where the paint changes color. This technology is currently available in black, white and a few shades of gray.