Environment adaptive electronic ink screen display device and control method suitable for civil aviation passenger cabin

Abstract

The application discloses an environment-adaptive electronic ink screen display device suitable for a civil aviation passenger cabin and a control method. The device comprises an electronic ink screen, a controller coupled to the electronic ink screen, a CAN bus communication interface electrically connected with the controller and a passenger cabin management system respectively, a temperature sensor and an air pressure sensor electrically connected with the controller respectively, and a power management module integrated with a DC-DC voltage converter, with an output end of the DC-DC voltage converter electrically connected with a driving input end of the electronic ink screen. The control method comprises the following steps: receiving a seat update instruction through the CAN bus; obtaining real-time temperature and air pressure; and selecting a refresh strategy according to the environment parameters. The application completely avoids radio frequency emission, meets the aviation electromagnetic compatibility requirements, overcomes the problem of display failure of the electronic ink screen in a low-temperature and low-air-pressure environment, and has ultra-low power consumption and high reliability.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of civil aviation cabin display technology, and in particular to an environmentally adaptive electronic ink screen display device and control method suitable for civil aviation cabins. Background Technology

[0002] Currently, seat information boards on commercial flights worldwide generally use fixed plastic nameplates, which cannot be dynamically updated. A few high-end aircraft models have experimented with using LCD or OLED screens, but these have failed to gain widespread adoption due to issues such as high power consumption, severe heat generation, poor reliability, and high cost. Currently, no airline or supplier has publicly announced the deployment of E-Ink-based information display systems in passenger cabins. Existing E-Ink screen products are mainly used in consumer electronics (such as readers), retail price tags, and industrial handheld terminals. Their communication methods mostly rely on radio frequency technologies such as Bluetooth (BLE) or Wi-Fi, and their operating environment is typically normal temperature and pressure, without being specifically designed and optimized for the special environment of aircraft cabins (such as the prohibition of radio frequency and potential low-temperature and low-pressure conditions). The aforementioned existing technologies mainly suffer from the following drawbacks:

[0003] 1. Lack of aviation-compliant communication solutions: The radio frequency communication (BLE / Wi-Fi) that existing e-ink screens rely on is strictly prohibited during civil aviation cabin flight because it poses a risk of interfering with navigation systems, making it impossible for existing products to be directly used for dynamic cabin information display.

[0004] 2. Insufficient Environmental Adaptability: The refresh control logic of commercial e-ink screens uses fixed parameters and does not consider the low temperature (such as ground parking in extremely cold regions) or low air pressure (such as takeoff and landing at high-altitude airports and emergency depressurization) environments that may occur during aviation operations. This may lead to refresh failure, severe ghosting, or display failure. For example, although patent CN105448246A proposes a method for adjusting the e-ink screen driving voltage according to temperature, it only considers the single temperature variable under normal pressure conditions. Its purpose is to optimize display ghosting at normal temperature, completely unaware of and failing to address the impact of the key environmental factor of low air pressure (low pressure) unique to aircraft cabins on the reliability of e-ink screens.

[0005] 3. Fundamental Differences in System Function and Purpose: Although Chinese patent CN207835656U discloses a civil aviation cabin monitoring system based on a CAN bus and mentions the use of temperature sensors, its system architecture is centralized data acquisition and reporting. All sensor data (including temperature) is uploaded to the backend for safety monitoring, rather than for local devices (such as information displays). Therefore, this patent not only fails to provide technical inspiration for using the CAN bus to receive commands to drive the e-ink screen, but also fails to involve any technical concept for local adaptive refresh control based on environmental parameters (especially air pressure).

[0006] 4. Low system integration: It lacks a seamless integration solution with the Civil Aviation Standard Cabin Management System (CMS), making it impossible to achieve real-time and reliable synchronization of information such as seat number, cabin class, and member identity. Summary of the Invention

[0007] The purpose of this invention is to provide an environmentally adaptive electronic ink screen display device and control method suitable for civil aviation cabins.

[0008] The technical solution adopted in this invention is:

[0009] An environmentally adaptive e-ink display device suitable for civil aviation cabins includes:

[0010] E-ink screen;

[0011] The controller is electrically connected to the e-ink screen;

[0012] The CAN bus communication interface is electrically connected to both the controller and the cabin management system.

[0013] A temperature sensor, electrically connected to the controller, is used to sense the cabin ambient temperature.

[0014] The air pressure sensor, electrically connected to the controller, is used to sense the air pressure in the cabin environment;

[0015] The power management module is electrically connected to the controller. The power management module integrates a DC-DC boost converter, and the output terminal of the DC-DC boost converter is electrically connected to the drive input terminal of the e-ink screen.

[0016] Furthermore, the CAN bus communication interface includes a CAN bus and a CAN transceiver. The CAN transceiver is electrically connected to the controller, and the cabin management system is connected to the CAN transceiver via the CAN bus.

[0017] Furthermore, the controller is a low-power MCU with a built-in CAN controller, which is electrically connected to the CAN transceiver.

[0018] This invention provides an environmentally adaptive electronic ink screen display control method suitable for civil aviation cabins, applied to the aforementioned device, comprising the following steps:

[0019] Receive seat update instructions from the cabin management system via the CAN bus communication interface;

[0020] Acquire real-time temperature from a temperature sensor and real-time air pressure from a pressure sensor.

[0021] Based on the real-time temperature and the real-time air pressure, a corresponding refresh strategy is selected to control the e-ink screen to perform a refresh operation.

[0022] Furthermore, selecting the corresponding refresh strategy includes:

[0023] When the temperature is ≤0°C or the air pressure is ≤0.3 atmospheres, a special environment refresh strategy is executed; otherwise, a standard environment refresh strategy is executed.

[0024] Furthermore, the special environment refresh strategy includes: controlling the DC-DC boost converter to output a 17V enhanced drive voltage, controlling the e-ink screen to perform partial refresh, and setting the single refresh cycle to 700 milliseconds.

[0025] Furthermore, the standard environment refresh strategy includes: controlling the DC-DC boost converter to output a 15V standard drive voltage, controlling the e-ink screen to perform partial refresh, and setting the single refresh cycle to 300 milliseconds.

[0026] Furthermore, the partial refresh includes: the controller performs a character-level comparison between the received seat information and the currently displayed content, and only drives the character areas on the e-ink screen that have changed.

[0027] Furthermore, when no seat update instruction is received, the controller enters a low-power standby mode and periodically wakes up to read the values ​​of the temperature sensor and the barometric pressure sensor.

[0028] Furthermore, when an emergency alarm command is received via the CAN bus communication interface, the electronic ink screen is forced to execute a special environmental refresh strategy, regardless of whether the current temperature and air pressure meet the conditions of temperature ≤ 0°C or air pressure ≤ 0.3 atmospheres.

[0029] The present invention adopts the above technical solution and has the following beneficial technical effects:

[0030] This invention replaces traditional radio frequency communication with a CAN bus communication interface, thereby avoiding the safety risks of radio frequency prohibition during civil aviation cabin flight and ensuring that the device inherently complies with aviation electromagnetic compatibility standards. Simultaneously, by configuring temperature and pressure sensors to perceive the cabin environment in real time, and in conjunction with a DC-DC boost converter with multi-level voltage output capabilities, the controller can drive the e-ink screen to perform partial refreshes, increase the driving voltage (from 15V to 17V), and extend the refresh cycle in low-temperature (≤0°C) or low-pressure (≤0.3 atmospheres) environments. This effectively overcomes the technical challenges of refresh failure, ghosting, or display failure of e-ink screens under extreme aviation conditions, achieving ultra-low power consumption, high reliability, and full compliance with aviation safety regulations for dynamic seat information display. Attached Figure Description

[0031] The present invention will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments;

[0032] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the hardware architecture of the display device of the present invention;

[0033] Figure 2 A flowchart illustrating the environment-adaptive refresh method. Detailed Implementation

[0034] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0035] like Figure 1 As shown, this embodiment provides an environment-adaptive electronic ink screen display device suitable for civil aviation cabins, including: an electronic ink screen, a controller, a CAN bus communication interface, a temperature sensor, a barometric pressure sensor, and a power management module.

[0036] The e-ink screen serves as an information display unit. In one embodiment, the e-ink screen uses a standard industrial-grade monochrome e-ink screen module (such as the EInkSpectra series or similar products), with a nominal operating temperature range of 0°C to 50°C. This selection is based on the actual ambient temperature of civil aviation cabins (typically maintained at 18-26°C, and not lower than 0°C during extreme ground parking), ensuring reliable operation without additional heating. In an extended embodiment, if the device needs to be deployed in non-temperature-controlled areas (such as cargo holds, where temperatures can drop as low as -30°C), an ultra-wide temperature industrial-grade e-ink screen is selected, with an operating temperature range of -25°C to 70°C, and a transparent ITO heating film is integrated on its back. This solution is used to cover more demanding application scenarios.

[0037] To improve mechanical stability and adapt to the vibration environment during flight, the substrate of the e-ink screen is made of flexible polyimide (PI) substrate, whose coefficient of thermal expansion is matched with the encapsulating adhesive. Combined with a reinforced microcapsule encapsulation process, it can effectively pass random vibration tests in aviation environments.

[0038] The controller is the core processing unit, employing a low-power MCU, specifically an ARM Cortex-M4 series microcontroller with a clock frequency ≥80MHz. This MCU has a built-in CAN controller, possessing sufficient computing power to execute an environment-adaptive refresh algorithm. The controller is electrically connected to the e-ink screen, specifically via an FPC cable or PCB trace, to the screen's driver interface for outputting display data and driving timing.

[0039] Temperature sensor: Used to monitor the local ambient temperature of the e-ink screen in real time. It adopts a high-precision NTC thermistor (accuracy ±0.5°C). The temperature sensor is electrically connected to the controller and physically installed near the back of the e-ink screen. It is used to monitor the local ambient temperature of the e-ink screen in real time (this local temperature is an accurate reflection of the cabin environment at the screen and is the direct basis for the controller to perform adaptive refresh).

[0040] Barometric pressure sensor: Used to sense the cabin air pressure, employing a MEMS digital barometer (e.g., Bosch BMP388, accuracy ±0.5 hPa), which is electrically connected to the controller.

[0041] CAN Bus Communication Interface: This interface includes a CAN bus and a CAN transceiver. The CAN transceiver is electrically connected to the controller, and the Cabin Management System (CMS) connects to the CAN transceiver via the CAN bus. The CAN transceiver conforms to the ISO 11898-2 standard and integrates bus ESD protection. It is used to receive data frames containing seat information, emergency alarm commands, etc., from the Cabin Management System. This solution completely avoids radio frequency emissions, meeting aviation electromagnetic compatibility requirements. Simultaneously, the controller's built-in CAN controller is electrically connected to this CAN transceiver, responsible for data frame assembly and parsing.

[0042] Power Management Module: Electrically connected to the controller, it integrates a DC-DC boost converter (e.g., TITPS65185). The output of this DC-DC boost converter is electrically connected to the drive input of the e-ink screen. This converter has two voltage output levels: a standard 15V drive voltage in standard mode and a switchable 17V boost drive voltage in adaptive mode, and manages the standby and wake-up power consumption of the entire device.

[0043] The control logic of this device adaptively adjusts the refresh strategy based on environmental parameters to ensure that the content on the e-ink screen is displayed clearly, accurately, and reliably. The following section will explain... Figure 2 The flowchart describes the process in detail.

[0044] Phase 1: Quiet Standby

[0045] After the device is powered on and initialized, if there are no update commands, the controller (MCU) enters a low-power mode, keeping only the CAN bus communication interface (specifically the CAN transceiver) in listening mode. Simultaneously, the controller's internal timer wakes up the MCU every second to quickly read and save the values ​​from the temperature and pressure sensors. At this time, the e-ink screen maintains its current display content without any flickering.

[0046] Phase Two: Receiving Instructions

[0047] When the Cabin Management System (CMS) sends a data frame containing seat information via the aircraft's internal CAN bus, and the address of this data frame matches that of this device, the CAN transceiver detects the instruction and generates an interrupt signal. This wakes the MCU from low-power mode via the built-in CAN controller. The MCU reads and temporarily stores the instruction content, then enters the environmental assessment phase. During this phase, the screen content remains unchanged.

[0048] Phase Three: Environmental Perception and Intelligent Decision-Making

[0049] The MCU reads the latest cached environmental data (temperature T and air pressure P) and performs logical judgments:

[0050] Standard environment: If T>0°C and P>0.3 atmospheres (covering normal cabin scenarios), the system determines it to be a standard environment.

[0051] Special Environment: If T ≤ 0°C or P ≤ 0.3 atmospheres, the system determines it to be a special environment and prepares to activate adaptive protection measures. The low pressure threshold of 0.3 atmospheres is significantly lower than the cabin pressure during normal cruising in a commercial airliner (typically no lower than 0.75 atmospheres). This is a conservative setting designed to cover extreme failure scenarios such as emergency cabin depressurization—in which case the cabin pressure may rapidly drop to a level comparable to the outside atmospheric pressure at high altitudes (e.g., approximately 0.3 atmospheres at an altitude of 30,000 feet). To ensure the reliability of the display function under these stringent conditions, the system triggers an enhanced refresh strategy once it detects that the pressure is below this threshold.

[0052] It is worth noting that the low-pressure threshold (0.3 atmospheres) set by this device is primarily designed for extreme low-pressure scenarios such as emergency cabin depressurization that may occur during flight. For operation at high-altitude airports (such as those exceeding 2438 meters in altitude), the ground ambient pressure is typically in the range of 0.65–0.75 atmospheres. While lower than the standard atmospheric pressure at sea level, this is still significantly higher than the 0.3 atmosphere trigger threshold set by this device. Therefore, the enhanced refresh strategy will not be activated due to pressure conditions. However, during operation at high-altitude airports, low temperatures (T≤0°C) or changes in electrical characteristics during cold starts may affect display performance. Such situations will be covered by temperature criteria (T≤0°C) or independent startup protection logic.

[0053] At this stage, the e-ink screen remains unchanged, but the system has already configured parameters for different refresh strategies.

[0054] Phase 4: Perform adaptive refresh

[0055] This is a crucial step in the solution; the system executes different refresh strategies based on the judgment result (resulting in significantly different system behaviors and display effects):

[0056] Scenario A: Standard environment (T>0°C, P>0.3 atm)

[0057] System behavior:

[0058] The power management module controls the DC-DC converter to output a standard 15V voltage.

[0059] The controller uses a standard waveform for refreshing, with a single refresh period set to 300 milliseconds.

[0060] The controller (MCU) performs a character-level comparison between the received seating information and the currently displayed content, and generates a local refresh instruction that only includes the changed area based on the comparison result, thereby driving only the changed character area on the e-ink screen (for example, only refreshing the letter "A" to "B").

[0061] Display effect: The content updates quickly (within half a second), the display is clear and sharp, there is no afterimage, and the whole process is almost imperceptible to passengers.

[0062] Scenario B: Special environment (T≤0°C or P≤0.3atm)

[0063] System behavior:

[0064] The power management module controls the DC-DC converter to automatically switch to a 17V enhanced drive voltage (an increase of approximately 13%) to provide a stronger electric field force to drive the ink particles that become "sluggish" at low temperatures.

[0065] The controller uses a specially optimized low-temperature waveform, extending the single refresh cycle to 700 milliseconds, giving particles more time to complete their migration.

[0066] The controller (MCU) generates a local refresh instruction based on the comparison result, and drives the changed character area (or the pixel area that constitutes the character) on the e-ink screen in small areas multiple times to avoid failure caused by driving a large area at once.

[0067] Display performance: Content updates are slightly slow (approximately within 1 second), but this is perfectly acceptable in low-frequency update scenarios such as cabin information. The display remains clear and complete, effectively avoiding potential malfunctions such as "blurred display," "half-text," or "no updates at all" in harsh environments, greatly improving the system's robustness and reliability under edge conditions.

[0068] Phase 5: Refresh complete, return to standby mode.

[0069] After the e-ink screen refresh operation is completed, the MCU controls the power management module to stop high-voltage output (i.e., controls the DC-DC boost converter to shut down), clears the internal cache, and re-enters the low-power standby mode of Phase One, waiting for the next instruction. The screen stably displays the updated content until it is changed again.

[0070] Special Circumstances: Emergency Alarm

[0071] If the data frame received by the system via the CAN bus is an emergency alarm command such as "fasten your seatbelt", the controller will immediately interrupt the current task regardless of the current environment or state, force the adoption of a special environment refresh strategy (17V voltage, extended cycle, partial refresh) and complete the refresh with the highest priority to ensure that critical safety information can be clearly seen by passengers under any operating conditions.

[0072] Furthermore, those skilled in the art should understand that the above embodiments do not constitute the only limitation of the present invention. Based on the same inventive concept, the following reasonable modifications can also be made:

[0073] Communication protocol replacement: The CAN bus communication interface can be replaced with other aviation standard buses, such as ARINC429 or ARINC664 (AFDX), only requiring replacement of the corresponding physical layer transceiver and protocol stack software.

[0074] Extended display content: In addition to basic seat information, the system can be expanded to support the dynamic display of multilingual information, passenger names (which can be turned off in privacy mode), temporary boarding gate change notices, or crew dispatch instructions.

[0075] Obviously, the described embodiments are only some, not all, of the embodiments of the present invention. Without conflict, the embodiments and features described and illustrated herein can be combined with each other. The components of the embodiments of the present invention generally described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings can be arranged and designed in various different configurations. Therefore, the detailed description of the embodiments of the present invention is not intended to limit the scope of the claimed invention, but merely to illustrate selected embodiments of the invention. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without inventive effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. An environmentally adaptive electronic ink screen display device suitable for civil aviation cabins, characterized in that: include: E-ink screen; The controller is electrically connected to the e-ink screen; The CAN bus communication interface is electrically connected to both the controller and the cabin management system. A temperature sensor, electrically connected to the controller, is used to sense the cabin ambient temperature. The air pressure sensor, electrically connected to the controller, is used to sense the air pressure in the cabin environment; The power management module is electrically connected to the controller. The power management module integrates a DC-DC boost converter, and the output terminal of the DC-DC boost converter is electrically connected to the drive input terminal of the e-ink screen.

2. The environmentally adaptive electronic ink screen display device suitable for civil aviation cabins according to claim 1, characterized in that: The CAN bus communication interface includes a CAN bus and a CAN transceiver. The CAN transceiver is electrically connected to the controller, and the cabin management system is connected to the CAN transceiver via the CAN bus.

3. The environmentally adaptive electronic ink screen display device suitable for civil aviation cabins according to claim 2, characterized in that: The controller is a low-power MCU with a built-in CAN controller, which is electrically connected to the CAN transceiver.

4. A method for controlling an environmentally adaptive electronic ink screen display suitable for civil aviation cabins, applied to the device described in any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: Includes the following steps: Receive seat update instructions from the cabin management system via the CAN bus communication interface; Acquire real-time temperature from a temperature sensor and real-time air pressure from a pressure sensor. Based on the real-time temperature and the real-time air pressure, a corresponding refresh strategy is selected to control the e-ink screen to perform a refresh operation.

5. The control method according to claim 4, characterized in that: The corresponding refresh strategy can be selected as follows: When the temperature is ≤0°C or the air pressure is ≤0.3 atmospheres, a special environment refresh strategy is executed; otherwise, a standard environment refresh strategy is executed.

6. The control method according to claim 5, characterized in that: The special environment refresh strategy includes: controlling the DC-DC boost converter to output a 17V enhanced drive voltage, controlling the e-ink screen to perform partial refresh, and setting the single refresh cycle to 700 milliseconds.

7. The control method according to claim 5, characterized in that: The standard environment refresh strategy includes: controlling the DC-DC boost converter to output a 15V standard drive voltage, controlling the e-ink screen to perform partial refresh, and setting the single refresh cycle to 300 milliseconds.

8. The control method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that: The partial refresh includes: the controller performing a character-level comparison between the received seat information and the currently displayed content, and only driving the character areas on the e-ink screen that have changed.

9. The control method according to claim 4, characterized in that: When no seat update instruction is received, the controller enters a low-power standby mode and periodically wakes up to read the values ​​of the temperature sensor and the barometric pressure sensor.

10. The control method according to claim 4, characterized in that: When an emergency alarm command is received via the CAN bus communication interface, the electronic ink screen is forced to execute a special environmental refresh strategy, regardless of whether the current temperature and air pressure meet the conditions of temperature ≤ 0°C or air pressure ≤ 0.3 atmospheres.

Images