LA MOTOR SHOW: Kick-to-open doors

Ford has taken video game technology into the carpark... To lend a helping hand when yours are full!

Picture the scene: it is raining, in one hand you have three bags of groceries... Under the other, a slab of beer and you are struggling towards the parked car. Somewhere, deep in your pockets are your keys and even the button to auto open the doors is unreachable.

And even if you could get to them, getting the boot, hatch or tailgate open would call for a whole other set of gym moves to keep your groceries relatively dry!

But Ford may have the dilemma's answer on foot with a concept being shown off at the up-coming Los Angeles motor show. The 2013 Ford Escape Concept vehicle will feature a hands and key-free way to open the tailgate using gesture detection of a motion we have all been tempted to do when frustrated.

Kicking in the air under the rear bumper with the vehicle’s proximity keys in range will automatically lift the tailgate on the concept Ford. And once the parcels and groceries are loaded, a similar ‘kick’ will close the door. Magic!

The gesture control is similar in concept to that used by video game console manufactures such as the Microsoft designed Xbox 360 Kinect. The Kinect device uses a series of cameras to recognise and react to the shape and movement of the human body, the key is differentiating human movement from background motion.

The only issue we can see is that this will encourage shoppers to load up further on purchases before heading to the car. That could get expensive!