Non-distracting passenger entertainment display for a vehicle

Abstract

The invention relates to a passenger entertainment display for a vehicle. The display comprises a display surface for simultaneously generating an individual image content and a light beam transporting same in each case for a driver and a passenger in associated, disjointed, nested display surface portions. It further comprises a lenticular lens layer arranged on the display surface and designed such that both light beams exit the display in radiation directions which differ from one another and thus each only go to the associated driver eyebox or passenger eyebox, respectively. The display is designed and / or configured, at least in its non-distracting operating mode, to show the driver a non-distracting image with a considerably lower number of pixels, resolution and / or focus than the high-quality entertainment image shown to the passenger at the same time.

Description

[0001] Description

[0002] Distraction-free passenger entertainment display for a vehicle

[0003] The invention relates to a passenger entertainment display for installation in a vehicle. The vehicle can be a motor vehicle or any other land, air, or water vehicle. The invention also relates to a corresponding operating method, a correspondingly configured control unit, and a vehicle equipped with this display.

[0004] Passenger entertainment displays are gaining increasing attention in automotive engineering. These are displays for vehicle occupants in the front seats, primarily intended for the front passengers to show them entertainment content such as videos, games, and much more while driving. One challenge is that the driver cannot view this content while controlling the vehicle, as this could compromise driving safety.

[0005] Direct-view displays are often installed in motor vehicles or aircraft as part of an infotainment system, for example in the center console of a vehicle or in the backrest of an aircraft seat. The display image is clearly visible from different directions and can therefore be viewed by several passengers together. In order to instead show individual content to a driver and a front passenger or passengers sitting next to each other using a single direct-view display, US 7,580,186 B2, for example, proposes a multiple-view display with suitable parallax optics, in particular a lenticular lens layer, so that individual display content, which is generated for the individual users in spatially different display areas, is only visible from the respective viewing directions. However, this means that each individual user only has half or all of the display available.an even smaller proportion of the total display area and the total number of pixels of the multiple-view display is available, which means a noticeable limitation in image resolution and quality, especially for video films or games.

[0006] Another solution therefore reserves the entire display area of ​​a passenger entertainment display for the passenger alone, but provides a driver monitoring camera in the vehicle that detects the driver's gaze direction, so that the display is dimmed whenever and as long as the driver looks at it or in its direction. However, this approach has the problem that the accuracy of the gaze detection sensor may not be sufficiently high, can vary from user to user depending on their size, glasses, etc., and its performance can deteriorate depending on lighting conditions. To remedy this, the active area in which the image content on the passenger entertainment display is to be suppressed is typically expanded.This, in turn, leads to the problem that the passenger entertainment display can be paused even when the driver is perhaps only looking at the side mirror or the central information display in the center console (not necessarily at the passenger entertainment display itself). This can irritate the passenger by pausing their entertainment content for an extended period. On the other hand, if the system is equipped with a small active area, the correspondingly limited accuracy of the system can sometimes result in the video content continuing to play even when the driver is looking at it, which in turn poses a risk to driving safety.

[0007] Another solution involves a polarizing film, which, similar to the one used in laptops, protects the image content of the passenger entertainment display from prying eyes. However, this approach also has problems: (a) The driver can also focus their gaze on the passenger entertainment display, for example, while the car is parked or at a charging station, which leads to a rather poor experience. (b) The driver is the actual owner of the vehicle. However, a dark screen to the right of the driver does not necessarily meet the highest standards of driver comfort in their vehicle.

[0008] It is an object of the present invention to provide, in light of these problems, an alternative or improved display concept for passenger entertainment in a vehicle.

[0009] This object is achieved by a passenger entertainment display (hereinafter referred to as "display") according to independent claims 1 or 6, as well as by an associated operating method, a correspondingly configured control unit, and a vehicle equipped with this display according to the independent claims. Further embodiments are specified in the dependent claims. All further features and effects mentioned in the claims and the following description for the display also apply to the operating method, the control unit, and the vehicle, and vice versa.

[0010] According to a first aspect, a distraction-free passenger entertainment display is provided, which is designed for installation in a vehicle. The vehicle can be a motor vehicle, but also any other land, air, or water vehicle. The spatial orientation terms used herein, such as "above," "below," "left," "right," "horizontal," "vertical," etc., refer, unless otherwise stated, to the usual vehicle-fixed Cartesian coordinate system with mutually perpendicular longitudinal, transverse, and vertical directions of the vehicle.

[0011] In a first variant of the invention, the display has a display surface configured to simultaneously generate an individual image content and a light beam transporting this content for a driver and a passenger of the vehicle in associated disjoint (i.e., separate, non-overlapping) display surface sections nested within one another (e.g., in strips). In principle, any suitable display technology can be used for this purpose, in particular a light-transmitting or light-emitting flat screen, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), or a (p)LED or OLED technology.

[0012] The display further comprises a lenticular lens layer arranged on the display surface and designed such that both light beams leave the display in predetermined, mutually different emission directions, so that the light beam with the image content intended for the driver only reaches a predetermined driver eyebox, and the light beam with the image content intended for the passenger only reaches a predetermined passenger eyebox. The lenticular lens layer thus represents a direction assignment device that directs different portions of the light generated by the display surface as a whole in different directions. Lenticular lens layers suitable for this functionality are known per se; for example, they can be a lens grid made up of cylindrical lenses that extend in the vehicle's vertical direction and are arranged in a row in the vehicle's transverse direction.The lenticular lens layer can, for example, be applied as a film on the display surface.

[0013] As is customary, an eyebox is understood here as a two- or three-dimensional spatial area from which the respective user can view the image content generated for them on the display. Both eyeboxes can be separated in a direction transverse to the beam propagation direction of both light beams, in particular by a predetermined spatial distance, in order to reliably prevent overlap between the two eyeboxes. The position and / or dimensions of the driver or passenger eyebox can, for example, correspond at least approximately to the positions and / or dimensions of the corresponding vehicle seats in the vehicle.

[0014] The display is designed and / or configured, at least in its distraction-free operating mode, to show the driver a distraction-free image with a significantly lower number of pixels, resolution and / or sharpness than a high-quality entertainment image shown to the front passenger at the same time. This reliably prevents the driver from being distracted when looking at the display without having to completely forgo a display for the driver and / or front passenger. In addition, it is possible to continuously generate visual entertainment image content for the front passenger whose image resolution and quality amounts to significantly more than half of the total available capacity of the display area. Purely as an example, approximately two-thirds, three-quarters, four-fifths or even more of the total number of pixels or display area can be used to display the front passenger entertainment.

[0015] One concept of the passenger entertainment display presented here is to apply a customized lenticular lens layer to its display surface to continuously generate a primary high-quality image in the passenger's field of view and, at the same time, a secondary low-quality image in the driver's field of view. The secondary low-quality image can, for example, simply serve for decorative images, decorative animations, or simple displays such as the time or temperature.

[0016] In other words, the display can be designed and / or configured, in particular, to present the driver with the distraction-free image in the form of a static decoration and / or a simple decoration animation and / or a simple display of a device that does not require the driver's constant attention while driving (such as a time or temperature display) in its distraction-free operating mode. Alternatively or additionally, the display can be designed and / or configured, in particular, to present the passenger with a video, film, video game, book, (video) telephony screen, or desktop of a work computer with the required image quality and resolution through the high-quality entertainment image in its distraction-free operating mode.According to one embodiment, at least in the distraction-free operating mode of the display, the lenticular lens layer and the associated subdivision of the display surface into nested display surface sections are such that significantly more pixels or a significantly larger surface area proportion of the display surface are available to generate the image content for the front passenger than to generate the image content for the driver. In other words, the lenticular lens layer and the associated subdivision of the display surface in this embodiment is inhomogeneous with regard to the distribution of the entire available display surface between the driver and the front passenger. In particular, at least twice as many or even more, for example three to ten times as many, pixels ora portion of the display area that is at least twice as large or even larger, for example three to ten times as large, must be available to generate the image content for the passenger than to generate the image content for the driver.

[0017] According to one embodiment (within the distraction-free operating mode), the lenticular lens layer and the associated division of the display area between the driver and the front passenger can be electronically switched between a first and a second display mode depending on the driver's current viewing direction. In the first display mode, which is intended for situations when the driver is not looking at the display, the relative proportion of pixels or other surface units of the display area available to generate the image content for the front passenger is larger than in the second display mode, which is intended for situations when the driver is looking at the display. In other words, in this embodiment, slightly more display area and resolution is reserved for the front passenger when the driver is not looking at the display. If they are looking at it, their display share is slightly increased.Switchable lenticular lenses can, for example, be formed in a conventional manner using liquid crystal (LC) materials with nanostructured polymers, etc. Suitable cameras and similar driver monitoring devices for detecting the driver's line of sight may already be present on board a vehicle.

[0018] According to one embodiment, in addition to the modes presented here with pronounced passenger entertainment, the display can be switched to a driver-only mode, in which the entire available display area is available to generate the image content for the driver alone. This mode can be used, for example, when there is no passenger on board the vehicle, which can be detected with suitable sensors in or around the passenger seat. Even in driver-only mode, an automatic distinction can be implemented between a distraction-free regime during a manually controlled journey and an entertainment mode during a charging process at a charging station or during an autonomous journey. In any case, however, the full display capacity is available to the driver alone in driver-only mode.

[0019] In the last two embodiments, the camera detection does not have to be as fast and precise as in the state of the art described at the beginning, because driving safety does not depend on a correct detection of the driver's line of sight or the presence of a passenger on board, but is ensured independently of this by the basic property of the image content for the driver as being distraction-free or free of perceptible entertainment content that could attract the driver's attention.

[0020] In a second variant of the passenger entertainment display according to the first aspect of the invention, which is an alternative to the above first variant, the entire display surface is intended and designed solely to generate a high-quality entertainment image for the passenger. In this second variant, a lenticular lens layer is also arranged on the display surface.However, this is designed such that a first bundle of light rays leaves the display in a predetermined first radiation direction, which leads to a passenger eyebox intended only for the front passenger, whereby the display surface can be seen by the front passenger with essentially undiminished image quality, while a second bundle of light rays leaves the display in a predetermined second radiation direction, which leads to a driver eyebox intended only for the driver, whereby the display surface can be seen by the driver in such a blurred or out-of-focus manner that the same image is only recognizable as a distraction-free static or dynamic decorative image (in other words, the original entertainment content is no longer recognizable). Furthermore, everything described herein for the first variant and is also applicable to the second variant can also apply mutatis mutandis to this second variant.

[0021] According to a further aspect, a method for operating a passenger entertainment display presented herein according to the above first variant of the invention is provided. In this method, the display surface is controlled, at least in the distraction-free operating mode of the display, to generate the aforementioned distraction-free image for the driver, which is visible only from their driver eyebox, and to simultaneously generate the aforementioned high-quality entertainment image for the passenger, which is visible only from their passenger eyebox, in the associated disjoint, nested display surface sections.

[0022] In particular, the method may further comprise the following steps:

[0023] Providing or determining a current viewing direction of the driver and switching the display between the above-mentioned first and second display modes depending thereon; and / or

[0024] Check whether the passenger is present in his or her passenger seat and switch the display to the above driver-only mode or back depending on this.

[0025] According to a further aspect, a control unit is provided for operating the display presented herein, which is designed and configured to automatically carry out this method. For this purpose, a corresponding computer program can be installed in the control unit, for example, and run in a processor of the control unit during operation of the display in order to execute the aforementioned method. The control unit can, in particular, be designed as an integral component of the display. Alternatively or additionally, it can also be a separate control unit.

[0026] According to a further aspect, the above-mentioned vehicle is provided. It has a passenger compartment with a driver's seat for a driver and a passenger seat for a passenger, as well as the passenger entertainment display presented herein, which is arranged in the passenger compartment and, in particular, only opposite the passenger seat. Said driver eyebox and said passenger eyebox extend at a predetermined distance from each other in the transverse direction of the vehicle's own Cartesian coordinate system. In particular, the vehicle can further comprise the above-mentioned control unit.

[0027] The above aspects of the invention and their embodiments and specific configurations are explained in more detail below using an example shown in the accompanying drawing. The drawing is to be understood as a purely schematic illustration of the basic design and functional principle, i.e., not to scale. It shows:

[0028] Figure 1 is a plan view of a cockpit area of ​​a vehicle with a passenger entertainment display according to an embodiment of the invention.

[0029] All of the various embodiments, variants, and specific design features of the passenger entertainment display, the method for its operation, the control unit, and the vehicle according to the above aspects of the invention mentioned above in the description and in the subsequent claims can be implemented in the example shown in Figure 1, in particular also alternatively or in addition to the features shown therein. Therefore, they will not all be repeated below. The same applies accordingly to the definitions and effects already given above with regard to individual features shown in Figure 1.

[0030] Fig. 1 shows a highly simplified top view of a section of a vehicle 1 with a distraction-free passenger entertainment display 2 (short: "display") according to an exemplary embodiment of the above-mentioned first variant of the invention. The spatial orientation terms used below, such as "horizontal," "vertical," "below," "above," "left," "right," etc., refer to the usual vehicle-fixed Cartesian coordinate system K with mutually perpendicular longitudinal, transverse, and vertical directions X, Y, and Z of the vehicle 1. The longitudinal direction X is sometimes also referred to as the direction of travel.

[0031] In this example, vehicle 1 is a motor vehicle. It is indicated in Fig. 1 only by its purely symbolic instrument panel 3, which defines the front of a passenger compartment 4 of vehicle 1, as well as two vehicle seats arranged opposite the instrument panel 3 – a driver's seat 5 and a passenger seat 6 arranged to the right of it. Both the driver's seat 5 and the passenger seat 6 are again only symbolically indicated in the plan view of Fig. 1 by their backrests and headrests, respectively. A driver's eyebox E1 and a passenger's eyebox E2 are also indicated only schematically in Fig. 1; these are intended for the eyes of the driver and the passenger, respectively, and are limited purely by way of example to the area in front of the corresponding vehicle seat or its headrest.

[0032] In this example, the display 2 is arranged directly opposite the passenger seat 6 and can, for example, be integrated or mounted in or on the instrument panel 3. In this example, the driver's seat 5 is arranged at an angle visible in Fig. 1, i.e., diagonally to the left, of the display 2.

[0033] To illustrate its functionality, the display 2 is shown by a greatly enlarged section of its horizontal cross-section. The display 2 comprises a display surface 7 which, according to the above first variant of the invention, is divided into nested, disjoint display surface sections 9 and 10 which extend in stripes in the Z direction (i.e., into the plane of the drawing). The display surface sections 9, which are designed to generate an individual image content and a light beam L2 transporting this content for the front passenger, are many times larger in area and therefore comprise significantly more pixels than the display surface sections 10, which serve to generate an individual image content and a light beam L1 transporting this content for the driver.Furthermore, a lenticular lens layer 8 is arranged and designed on the display surface 7 such that both light beams L1 and L2 leave the display 2 in predetermined, mutually different emission directions, so that the light beam L1 only reaches the driver eyebox E1 and the light beam L2 only reaches the passenger eyebox E2.

[0034] In the cross-sectional section of the display 2 shown in Fig. 1, which has been greatly enlarged for illustrative purposes, only four of the actual plurality of cylindrical lenticular lenses 11 are visible, the shape of which is again only schematically sketched. The strip-shaped display surface sections 9 and 10 extend in pairs along the corresponding lenticular lens 11.

[0035] In this exemplary embodiment, it is therefore proposed to design the shape (i.e., geometric configuration) of the lenticular lenses 11 to be mechanically inhomogeneous in such a way (not separately shown in Fig. 1) that a much larger proportion of the entire display surface 7 and its pixels are reserved for the front passenger and visible from their eyebox E2 than is visible to the driver from their eyebox E1. As shown in Fig. 1, a large proportion of the pixels are thus provided for the front passenger, thus enabling almost the maximum possible image resolution and quality. This makes it possible to offer the front passenger high-quality passenger entertainment, for example in the form of a video, film, or video game.At the same time, the driver can only see a very limited proportion of the total number of pixels on Display 2, which is, however, perfectly suited for a distraction-free image in the form of a static decoration, a simple decoration animation or a simple display such as a time or temperature display.

[0036] As described in more detail above, an optional further development of the display 2 is possible through the use of switchable lenticular lenses 11, for example in the form of LC lenses filled with nanostructured polymers, in order to switch the image resolution (or number of pixels) reserved for the driver depending on their direction of vision. As long as the driver is not looking at the display 2 (which is detected by a passenger compartment camera in the vehicle 1), a minimum number of pixels is reserved for the driver in this embodiment for safety reasons. As soon as the driver looks at the display 2, the number of pixels reserved for them increases in order to slightly improve the image quality for them. Nevertheless, even this number of pixels remains so low that the image content visible from the driver eyebox E1 remains so unspecific and distraction-free that any distraction from performing the driving task is ruled out.

[0037] In this example, the vehicle 1 further comprises a control unit 12 according to the above further aspect of the invention, which is also accommodated purely by way of example in the instrument panel 3 and is designed and configured to automatically carry out the method according to the above second aspect of the invention. The control unit 12 can, for example, be integrated into the display 2 itself, but it can also be designed as an integral or retrofittable component of a central control unit (not shown) of the vehicle 1.

[0038] In a simplified format of the display 2 according to the above second variant of the invention (not shown in Fig. 1), all pixels of the display surface 7 can also be reserved for the front passenger. The lenticular lens layer 8 is designed in such a way that it distorts or deforms the generated display image to such an extent that it can only be seen as severely blurred or out of focus from the driver's eyebox E1. With such blurriness or out of focus, the image generated by the display 2 for the front passenger is perceived from the driver's position only as an interior enhancement, but no longer contains any entertainment content that could even remotely distract the driver.

[0039] List of reference symbols

[0040] 1 vehicle

[0041] 2 Passenger entertainment display, in short: “display”

[0042] 3 Instrument panel

[0043] 4 Passenger compartment

[0044] 5 Driver's seat

[0045] 6 Passenger seat

[0046] 7 display area

[0047] 8 lenticular lens layer

[0048] 9 display areas with image content for the passenger

[0049] 10 display areas with image content for the driver

[0050] 11 individual lenticular lenses

[0051] 12 Control unit

[0052] L1 Light beam with the image content for the driver

[0053] L2 light beam with the image content for the passenger

[0054] E1 Driver eyebox

[0055] E2 Passenger eyebox

[0056] K vehicle-fixed Cartesian coordinate system

[0057] X, Y, Z longitudinal, transverse and height directions of the vehicle

Claims

Claims 1. Passenger entertainment display (2) for installation in a vehicle (1), comprising: a display surface (7) which is designed to simultaneously generate an individual image content and a light beam bundle (L1, L2) transporting this content for a driver and a passenger of the vehicle (1) in associated disjoint, nested display surface sections (9, 10); and a lenticular lens layer (8) arranged on the display surface (7) and designed such that both light beams (L1, L2) leave the display (2) in predetermined, mutually different emission directions and thus only reach an associated driver or front passenger eyebox (E1, E2); wherein the display (2) is designed and / or configured to show the driver, at least in a distraction-free operating mode, a distraction-free image with a considerably lower number of pixels, resolution and / or sharpness than a high-quality entertainment image shown to the front passenger at the same time.

2. Passenger entertainment display (2) according to claim 1, wherein the display (2) is designed and / or configured to show the driver, in the distraction-free operating mode, the distraction-free image in the form of a static decoration and / or a simple decoration animation and / or a simple display of a device that does not require a constant requires the driver's attention while driving; and / or to display a video, film, video game, book, (video) telephony screen or desktop of a work computer to the passenger through the high-quality entertainment image.

3. Passenger entertainment display (2) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein at least in the distraction-free operating mode of the display (2), the lenticular lens layer (8) and the associated subdivision of the display surface (7) into nested display surface sections (9, 10) are such that significantly more, in particular at least twice as many, pixels or a significantly larger, in particular at least twice as large, area portion of the display surface (7) are available to generate the image content for the passenger than to generate the image content for the driver.

4. Passenger entertainment display (2) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein in the distraction-free operating mode of the display (2), the lenticular lens layer (8) and the associated subdivision of the display surface (7) into nested display surface sections (9, 10) are switchable between a first and a second display mode depending on a current viewing direction of the driver; such that in the first display mode, which is provided for situations when the driver is not looking at the display (2), the relative proportion of pixels or other surface units of the display surface (7) available for generating the image content for the passenger is greater than in the second display mode, which is provided for situations when the driver is looking at the display (2).

5. Passenger entertainment display (2) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the display (2) can additionally be switched, for example depending on the presence of a passenger in the vehicle (1), into a driver-only mode in which the entire available display area (7) is available for generating the image content for the driver alone.

6. A passenger entertainment display (2) for installation in a vehicle (1), comprising: a display surface (7) designed to generate a high-quality entertainment image intended for a passenger; and a lenticular lens layer (8) arranged on the display surface (7) and designed such that a first light beam (L2) leaves the display (2) in a predetermined first radiation direction, which leads to a passenger eyebox (E2) intended only for the passenger, whereby the display surface (7) can be seen by the passenger with a substantially undiminished image quality, while a second light beam (L1) leaves the display (2) in a predetermined second radiation direction, which leads to a driver eyebox (E1) intended only for the driver, whereby the display surface (7) can be seen by the driver in such a blurred or out-of-focus manner that the same image is recognizable only as a distraction-free decorative image.

7. Method for operating a passenger entertainment display (2) according to one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the display surface (7) is configured to generate a individual image content for the driver to display the said distraction-free image, which can only be seen from his driver's eyebox (E1), and to simultaneously generate an individual image content for the passenger to display the said high-quality entertainment image, which can only be seen from his passenger's eyebox (E2), in the associated disjoint, nested display surface sections (9, 10).

8. The method according to claim 7 in conjunction with claim 4 and / or 5, further comprising the steps: Providing or determining a current viewing direction of the driver and switching the display (2) between said first and second display modes depending thereon; and / or Check whether the passenger is present in his passenger seat (6) and, depending on this, switch the display (2) to the mentioned driver-only mode or back.

9. Control unit (12) for operating a passenger entertainment display (2) according to one of claims 1 to 5, which is designed and configured to automatically carry out the method according to claim 7 or 8.

10. Vehicle (1), in particular a motor vehicle, with mutually perpendicular longitudinal, transverse and vertical directions (X, Y, Z) of a vehicle-specific Cartesian coordinate system (K), comprising: a passenger compartment (4) with a driver's seat (5) for a driver and a passenger seat (6) for a passenger; a passenger entertainment display (2) according to one of claims 1 to 6, which is arranged in the passenger compartment (4) and preferably only opposite the passenger seat (6), wherein said driver eyebox (E1) and said Passenger eyebox (E2) are located at a predetermined distance from each other in the transverse direction (Y) of the vehicle (1); and preferably further comprising a control unit (12) according to claim 9.

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