Change your car's colour with your mind!: this is how BMW makes it possible

You surely remember, and if not you can revisit it here, the revolutionary BMW iX Flow concept, which allows a car’s bodywork colour to be changed on the move, simply by pressing a button. It is an e-ink technology called E Ink, still in the testing phase, which BMW presented in the past at the Las Vegas CES.

Now, BMW has evolved this feature to make it even more striking. To begin with, instead of changing between the different colour patterns through a gradual transition, the colour transformation is instantaneous, thanks to adjustments made to the electronics. Let us recall that the key to the colour change on the BMW iX Flow’s bodywork lies in the special film with millions of pigments that can change colour when stimulated by electrical signals.

Change colour just by thinking about it

Well then, now, in addition to these improvements, BMW has collaborated with the start-up Brainboost so that the colour change of the iX Flow’s bodywork adjusts and reacts according to the level of brain activity. In other words: the car adapts the bodywork colour depending on the user’s mood, by reading their mind.

Brainboost was founded with the aim of bringing training courses, coaching sessions and mental health and wellbeing management measures to as many people as possible. Its software is based on the fundamentals of neuroscience and the measurement of electroencephalogram data, in order to improve quality of life. Applying this technology, during the tests of this system the car was “connected” directly to the user through the corresponding electroencephalogram, which records brain activity. The vehicle was able to react to this activity, changing the bodywork paint pattern from calmer ones to more rhythmic ones.

For the moment it has not been confirmed whether there are plans to bring this technology to series production in the future, although BMW has already announced that its “E Link” paint with a pattern modifiable “at the push of a button” could become a reality in the short or medium term.