Microsoft's Surface to drive BMW customization
BMW has been among the leaders in high-tech car innovation, occasionally even jumping too far ahead of what its older customers preferred to use.
So it should be no surprise that the German carmaker wants to lure in potential customers with another cool high-tech tool.
The BMW Product Navigator, which employs Microsoft's Surface computer, lets potential customers hand-pick options, then see a computer-generated video of their future car in action.
By placing mini discs on the computer table, customers at dealerships can add features like wheels in designing their customized BMW. Users can also use Microsoft's multitouch Surface gestures to rotate, move, and enlarge on-screen images.
Instead of showing the usual computer-generated image of a customized car, the program produces a video. The video, which is shown to users on a separate computer screen hung on a wall, shows the customer how their car will look from the inside and outside while being driven.
The results of each configuration a customer comes up with can then be printed, e-mailed, or saved to a USB drive to take home.
BMW has posted a video (above) on BMW-web.tv Web site and YouTube of Franz Wimmer, innovation manager at BMW Group, demonstrating how the Surface device works.
Don't go running out to your nearest BMW dealership just yet to check the technology out. The company has not yet specified when the BMW Product Navigator kiosks will be widely available.
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. E-mail her at candacelombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. 
