Batur introduces Light Sculpture - the first step in Digital Personalisation

2024-03-14

Batur showcases new technology delivering welcome animations projected from the door. Designed to project a ‘light through cut crystal’ effect on the road below. First automotive application to use digital light processing to produce ground based animated illumination when entering a car. Light sculpture, the next step in Bentley’s design language, first shown on EXP100 GT in 2019. Three coloured light sources reflect through ten lens and an advanced Digital Micromirror Device (DMDTM), sculpting the shape of the light to produce the animation. The animated light curation is projected via 415,800 microscopic mirrors that are each one fifth the width of a human hair. The DMDTM is less than 8mm2, with the complete light sculpture system being slightly larger than two AA batteries. Mulliner enables customers to co-create bespoke animations with colours to match their car.

The new Bentley Batur – the handcrafted, coachbuilt coupe from Mulliner – showcases a new technology that delivers welcome animation sequences projected to the ground from the door.

Bentley Motors has spent the last 100 years providing customers with exceptional luxury cars formed in metal, wood and leather. Looking to the future, light will be the fourth material that will play a significant part in Bentley’s design language, as originally demonstrated by the 2019 concept car EXP100 GT with its illuminated front grille. 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, in this case showcasing 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 DMD™ device is a small silicone chip that consists of 415,800 tiny mirrors. Through the movement of the mirrors, a moving image can be produced. The mirrors themselves are made of aluminium and are 16 microns in width – a fifth of the width of a human hair. As the size of the mirror and hinge is so small they can react thousands of times per second with each mirror delivering one pixel in the animation.

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.