Bentley Mulliner continues to set new benchmarks for luxury and personalization, evolving its concept of Digital Craftsmanship. The latest innovation is a bespoke animated welcome lamp projection, an industry first that transforms how occupants are greeted. This technology moves beyond simple illumination, turning light into a medium for highly personal expression. It debuted on Mulliner’s coachbuilt Batur and has since been refined to offer even more customization. The result is a seamless, exclusive welcome that feels entirely unique to the owner and the vehicle.
Digital Craftsmanship: Light as the Next Medium
For more than a century, Bentley has defined luxury through its mastery of wood, leather, and metal. The introduction of this animated projection system establishes light as the brand’s next artistic and design medium. Digital craftsmanship merges traditional, handcrafted luxury with cutting-edge digital innovation. This approach ensures that while the technology is advanced, the final presentation remains deeply emotive and bespoke. Future Bentley designs will integrate light as a core element of the overall vehicle aesthetic.
How the Bentley Mulliner Animated Welcome Lamp Works
The projection system is an impressive piece of innovative engineering based on digital light processing. It employs three coloured light sources and a complex optical pathway. The light passes through a system of ten lenses and two prisms to focus the animation. The core of the system is a highly advanced 8mm² Digital Micromirror Device, or DMD™.
The Micromirror Technology Explained
The DMD™ chip is a small silicon device housing 415,800 tiny mirrors. Each mirror is remarkably small, measuring only 16 microns in width, which is about one-fifth the width of a human hair. These micromirrors react thousands of times per second. Every single mirror acts as a pixel within the projected animation. The speed of their movement allows for a crisp, continuous, and dynamic moving image to be displayed.
Curating a Personal Welcome Sequence
The level of personalization offered by the Bentley Mulliner Animated Welcome Lamp is extraordinary. The bespoke animation is structured in two distinct parts. It begins with an introduction sequence as the door is initially opened by the occupant. This is followed by a shorter, looped animation that projects continuously until the door is closed. The entire sequence can last up to 11 seconds, offering ample time for a detailed, curated welcome.
Bringing Cabin Details to Life
Mulliner’s animation designers can incorporate and animate various features from the car’s exterior or interior. For example, a client’s personalized embroidery from the headrest can be brought to life in the light projection. This adds a further level of cohesion and depth to the car’s theme. The possible complexity ranges from a simple, elegant handwritten projection to an intricate, detailed animation like a floating feather or personalized motif. A recent example celebrated a concert hall, animating musical notes and warm light to reflect the venue’s ambience, centered around interior embroidery.
Technical Specifications of the Projection
The process of light creation is precise and highly controlled. The light signal is carefully sculpted by reflecting light from the coloured sources and lenses onto the mirrors. Mirrors in the ‘on’ position direct the light outward to create the image on the ground. Conversely, mirrors in the ‘off’ position reflect the light into an internal heat sink, which absorbs the unused light. This focusing approach, using multiple lenses after the DMD™ chip, ensures a sharp, vibrant display. The high number of moving mirrors guarantees a high-resolution, high-performance animation. The Bentley Mulliner Animated Welcome Lamp system showcases a blend of digital precision and high-end automotive execution.
The Future of Luxury Interaction
Bentley designers believe this digital craftsmanship represents a fundamental shift in the luxury sector. It moves the focus beyond the physical materiality of luxury goods and into the realm of experience. The goal is to create moments of deep emotional resonance for the customer. Light animations are becoming a core part of the design language. This convergence of beauty, technology, and human instinct is setting a new industry standard. Bentley is exploring further how these curated digital experiences can enhance owner feelings and interactions with their vehicle.
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Source: Bentley
