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NETBOOK PC : DREAM

In-Car PC
Posted in netbook | November 10, 2008 8pm

This netbook would not be a traditional netbook in the true sense. It would sell as a basic unit, and have additional add-ons, such as gps/speakers(mic)/touchscreen .

The netbook itself should be able to be mounted in a car via a variety of different methods. DIN slot/seat rail bolted mounting kits are essential.

A selection of user interfaces should be available to minimise the amount of user input required, dependent on the hardware selected. I.E. if a touchscreen is included, a user interface making good use of that should be included. If microphone is included, voice commands should be included in the interface. A usb input device specific for cars, like a mountable 5 button pad or trackball, should be available as an add-on if required.

Power is supplied via 12V cig. plug, or with standard power pack. Battery life is not as much of an issue, as this netbook was meant to be powered off a car battery.

The scope of this product could be brought into the more high-end car customization market, through two distinct methods:
1. Easily user-configurable user interface, including the option to design your own using images/colours. This should still be fairly high-level user customization. No coding. GUI configurable. For more advanced customization, a development environment should be supported.

2. An optional feature where analogue voltage sources inputted into the netbook, with a reference voltage of the battery voltage/ or after the voltage regulator. This additional A/D converter would be at least 12-bit resolution with at least 4 channels. This could facilitate the use of the netbook as a collection of on-screen diagnostic gauges to display readings such as oil pressure/oil temp/etc.
There would need to be a GUI to facilitate for labelling the signal for each channel and to configure the units and scaling, as well as gauge appearance and layout.

The netbook/mount would need to be very durable to really appeal to the car customization market. This is a bit of a weigh-up. On one hand you want high capacity to store media content such as video and audio files. However, SSD drives would be much more appropriate to in car mounting.

This range of netbooks would vary greatly in price. Due to the many differences in car models/peoples requirements in this area, the sales approach has to be modular. There should be only 1 model offered which is essentially a vanilla-grade netbook that is nice and rugged. Everything else is an add-on feature.