Vehicle Smart Garnish Light Guide Path and Reflection Layer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle smart garnish technologies face issues with light intensity loss due to absorption in plastic casing structures, leading to non-uniform visual conspicuousness of symbols and increased need for more light emitting elements.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle smart garnish with a light guide path and a light reflection layer made of glossy materials like indium, combined with a transparent optical window and surface roughness, to enhance light emission characteristics and reduce light loss, along with capacitive touch and force sensors for improved touch recognition.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If light is emitted from behind a casing with a transparent touch sensor pad to make symbols visually conspicuous, then the symbols become visually stand out, but light is absorbed into the wall surface of the casing during propagation, resulting in light loss and decreased light intensity
Solution Approach 1:
A light guide path is introduced as an intermediary component between the light source and the symbols. This light guide path efficiently channels light from the light emitting element to the symbols, reducing direct absorption by the casing wall surface and minimizing light loss during propagation.
Solution Approach 2:
The optical properties of the casing material are modified by adding a light reflective layer on the inner surface of the casing. This reflective layer changes the interaction between light and the casing material, reducing absorption and increasing light transmission efficiency to the symbols.
2Illumination intensity
If light is emitted through symbols from a light emitting element, then the center portion of the light emitting element appears visually conspicuous as a spot, but as portions of the symbol move away from the center, the light intensity decreases, resulting in non-uniform visual conspicuousness
Solution Approach 1:
The light guide path is designed with varying cross-sectional areas or refraction characteristics at different locations to distribute light more uniformly across the symbols. This local modification of the light guide structure ensures that light intensity is optimized at each symbol position, achieving uniform visual conspicuousness across all symbols.
3Illumination intensity
If more light emitting elements are mounted to compensate for decreased light intensity, then light intensity can be maintained, but the complexity and cost of the device increases
Solution Approach 1:
The light guide path serves as an efficient light distribution intermediary, enabling a single light emitting element to illuminate multiple symbols with sufficient intensity. This eliminates the need to mount multiple light emitting elements, thereby reducing device complexity while maintaining required light intensity levels.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enhances the aesthetic appeal of vehicle interiors by ensuring uniform light emission across symbols, increasing the efficiency of light emitting elements and reducing errors in touch recognition.
Implementation Method 1
a light reflection layer is formed on a partition of the light guide path. The light reflection layer may be made of a glossy material, may reflect the light entering from a first side of the light guide path, and emit the reflected light to a second side of the light guide path.
Implementation Method 2
a light guide path for guiding the light emitted from the light emitting element to the plurality of symbols
Implementation Method 3
a capacitive touch sensor pad corresponding to at least one of the plurality of symbols and recognizing a touch
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle smart garnish is provided. The vehicle smart garnish includes an upper casing formed with a plurality of symbols to which light is emitted, a capacitive touch sensor pad corresponding to at least one of the plurality of symbols and recognizing a touch, a holder casing in which the capacitive touch sensor pad is mounted and coupled from a rear of the upper casing, and a circuit board positioned behind the holder casing and on which a light emitting element emitting light is mounted and configured to detect a touch signal of the capacitive touch sensor pad, wherein the holder casing includes a light guide path for guiding the light emitted from the light emitting element to the plurality of symbols, and a light reflection layer is formed on a partition of the light guide path.