Timepiece Display Window Target Complementarity
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Users face difficulty in identifying specific information on transparent or design-modified timepieces where the traditional contrast-enhancement methods are insufficient, leading to readability challenges.
Innovation Solution
A display device where a window cooperates with targets to create complementary graphic shapes, forming readable characters only when combined, with patterns occupying less than 100% of the target's surface, ensuring they are meaningless alone and enhancing readability by completing the character's appearance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If the display member is made entirely visible (transparent dial or eliminated dial), then the aesthetic design and visibility of the timepiece is improved, but the readability of the displayed information deteriorates because users cannot easily identify which target carries the information they are looking for
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a window as an intermediary element that selectively reveals portions of the display member. This window acts as a mediator between the entirely visible display member and the user's need to identify specific information, allowing the display member to remain aesthetically visible while the window controls what information is currently being displayed and how it is perceived.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by making different portions of the display member have different properties. The display member contains multiple targets with patterns, where only the active target (currently being displayed through the window) has meaningful visual characteristics, while other targets have patterns that are intentionally designed to be meaningless or less visible when not in the active position.
2Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If contrast enhancement methods are used to improve readability, then the identification of specific information is improved, but the overall aesthetic design and transparency of the timepiece is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the display member into multiple distinct targets, each representing different information. This segmentation allows each target to be optimized for its specific function while maintaining the overall aesthetic design. The window further segments the view, allowing only the relevant target to be visible at any given time, enhancing readability without requiring contrast enhancement that would compromise the transparent aesthetic.
3Illumination intensity
If patterns occupy the entire target surface, then the visual impact is improved, but the ability to create meaningful information when combined with the window deteriorates because the patterns become permanently visible and meaningless
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the visibility and meaning of patterns conditional rather than static. Patterns occupy less than 100% of the target surface, and their meaningfulness is dynamically controlled by the position of the window. When the window aligns with a target, that target's patterns become meaningful information; when misaligned, the same patterns become meaningless or invisible, allowing the display to adapt its information content based on the current display state.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
The present invention relates to a display device (1), for a timepiece, comprising at least a first display element (2), comprising a plurality of patterns (6) to be displayed, and a window (10) associated with the first display element (2), the window (10) and the first display element (2) being intended to exhibit a relative movement between them to define a plurality of targets on the first display element (2) associated with the patterns (6) and intended to present, in a sequential manner, predefined information to a user, the window (10) being arranged to be able to cooperate with at least one of the targets in such a way that the window (10) and the target define graphic shapes which complement each other to create together at least one legible character relating to one of the predefined pieces of information, the target comprising one or more patterns (6) occupying a portion less than 100% of its surface.