Steering Wheel Touch Input for Vehicle Display Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle input apparatuses require drivers to continuously visually confirm icons on a display and release a hand from the steering wheel to select content, leading to increased distraction and reduced efficiency.
Innovation Solution
An input apparatus that uses a touch sensor on the steering wheel rim to detect finger positions and select display content based on the intersection of axial positions, allowing selection without visual confirmation or releasing the steering wheel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a touch panel display is used for content selection, then content selection functionality is enabled, but driver distraction increases and safety decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces the steering wheel as an intermediary device between the driver and the display system. The steering wheel includes touch sensors that detect finger positions and transmit this information to the display control system, enabling content selection without the driver needing to directly touch the display panel. This intermediary mechanism allows the driver to maintain hand contact with the steering wheel while still accessing display content, thereby reducing distraction and improving safety.
2Measurement precision
If visual confirmation of display icons is required for selection, then selection accuracy improves, but selection time increases and efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the visual-mechanical interaction (looking at display and touching screen) with a tactile-electronic system. Touch sensors in the steering wheel detect finger positions through mechanical contact, convert this to electrical signals, and map them to corresponding display positions. This substitution eliminates the need for visual confirmation while maintaining selection accuracy through precise finger position detection and coordinate mapping algorithms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the display coordinate system on the steering wheel surface. The touch sensors detect finger positions on the steering wheel, and the system maps these positions to corresponding coordinates on the display screen through coordinate transformation. This copying mechanism allows the driver to select display content based on tactile feedback from the steering wheel position rather than visual confirmation of the actual display icons.
Data Source
AI summary
An input apparatus for vehicle includes a display origin displaying unit, a finger detector, an axial position detector, and a display content selector. The axial position detector causes positions of respective fingers of a driver, detected by the finger detector provided on a steering wheel rim in a circumferential direction thereof, to correspond to axial positions in respective first and second directions of axial directions set to a display. The first and second axial directions are respectively set corresponding to first and second directions of directions, starting from a second origin, in the circumferential direction. The second origin is set to the steering wheel rim and corresponds to a first origin displayed on the display. The display content selector selects a content displayed on the display, on the basis of an intersection of the axial positions in the respective axial directions brought into the correspondence by the axial position detector.