The new Bentley Batur – the handcrafted, coachbuilt coupe from Mulliner – showcases a new technology that delivers welcome animation sequences designed to project a 'light through cut crystal' effect on the road below. Mulliner enables customers to co-create bespoke animations with colours to match their car.
Batur provides the first glimpse of light craftsmanship and the endless opportunities it could provide for luxury digital personalisation. Advanced Digital Light Processing (DLP) has been innovated to produce an animated welcome image when the door of the car is opened, the image here showcases the Batur's design and profile that is projected on to the floor.
The new projection system brings the potential for a customer to curate a bespoke welcome animation for their car, offering a true first step into digital personalisation.
This is the first automotive application using DLP technology, which can be found in advanced headlights and head up display systems, to welcome occupants to a car. The projection system that makes this possible uses three coloured light sources projecting through five different lens and two prisms into a highly advanced 8mm2 Digital Micromirror Device (DMDTM). The light signal is then focused through five further lenses, displaying the animation on the ground when the doors open.
The image is created by sculpting the light from the coloured light sources and previous lenses and hitting the mirrors in the 'on' position. All mirrors in the 'off' position reflect the light into a heat sink within the projector that absorbs the light. The light leaving the DMDTM chip travels through five further lens and focuses on the floor.
This new feature is the next step of a journey where Bentley Mulliner continues to innovate and push further the boundaries of technology, to offer customers an even more unique luxury personalisation experience.