There was angst in some quarters last weekend when the New York Giants defeated the Green Bay Packers, ensuring that the reigning Super Bowl champions won’t be returning this year.

I don’t know what show Packers fans saw last year, but what most of us clearly remember is Volkswagen dealing its competitors a stunning blow with their “The Force” commercial featuring a pint-sized Darth Vader. And VW will most assuredly return to this year’s extravaganza.

Super Bowl commercials cost advertisers $3.5 million for 30 seconds of air time this year, according to industry trade publication AdWeek, and some of the epic car commercials will run 60 seconds. The contenders take the field against one another in pursuit of the glory that comes with victory before an expected viewing audience of 110 million.

VW heads a roster of car companies advertising during the big game, including Chrysler, whose incredible “Imported From Detroit” commercial with Eminem would have otherwise been the big winner, and Audi, whose“Green Police” spot was among the top 2010 spots from the game.

The champs from VW are confident in their new 60-second spot.

“Last year’s Super Bowl campaign was an overwhelming success for the brand,” noted Brian Thomas, VW’s General Manager of Brand Marketing. “We see this year’s Super Bowl as a great way to continue this success.”

Among the automakers hoping for a breakout performance this year are Chevrolet (and probably also Cadillac from GM), Honda, Acura, Hyundai, Kia, Lexus and Toyota. Any one of these companies would hope for a “The Force”-like victory.

GM is pulling out the stops to ensure it has this year’s talked-about commercial. The automaker has put together five spots this year, and it hasn’t even decided which five it will run, according to spokesman Pat Morrissey. Here’s hoping the company will steer clear of the sappy commercials it has tended to run in the past with its “Chevy Runs Deep” tagline.

Game Boys and backseat monitors are “so five years ago,” suggests Tom Seder, a manager at the General Motors R&D labs.

Working with the Future Lab, at Israel’s Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, GM researchers are exploring ways to turn a car’s rear windows into interactive devices that could permit backseat passengers – children in particular – to have a more interesting experience while traveling.

According to GM, the Windows of Opportunity, or WOO, Project was inspired by studies showing that travelers often feel disconnected from the world outside.  The goal of the project isn’t to replace those Game Boys, iPads and seatback monitors as a way to play Mario Brothers, but to actually nurture curiosity about what’s beyond the passenger compartment.

“Traditionally, the use of interactive displays in cars has been limited to the driver and front passenger, but we see an opportunity to provide atechnology interface designed specifically for rear seat passengers,” said Seder. “Advanced windows that are capable of responding to vehicle speed and location could augment real world views with interactive enhancements to provide entertainment and educational value.”

GM asked students at Bezalel, Israel’s oldest institute for higher education, to come up with apps that could be presented on vehicle windows.  Among those they developed:

• Otto, an animated character that helps children learn about what they see along the road;
• Foofu, an app that helps encourage creativity as children draw with their fingers on steamy windows;
• Spindow, an app that would let children in one car connect with kids in other parts of the world in real time; and
• Pond, a similar app that would also connect children in different vehicles while letting them share music and messages.

“Projects like WOO are invaluable, because working with designers and scholars from outside of the automotive industry brings fresh perspective to vehicle technology development,” said Omer Tsimhoni, lab group manager for human-machine interface, GM Advanced Technical Center in Israel.

So-called “smart glass” is beginning to find a variety of applications in architecture and displays, and it was featured in the recent hit movie, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  It had a much more limited use in Daimler’s Maybach line, where passengers could transition an optional roof panel from clear to translucent with the touch of a button.

For now, GM says it has no production plans for the smart glass system, but in today’s competitive automotive world, that could change rather quickly.

Read more: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/19/10191119-gm-creates-digital-windows-on-the-world