Varying Display Bar for Autonomous Vehicle Action Timing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing autonomous driving systems fail to accurately notify occupants of timing changes, leading to potential misalignment between the occupant's perception and the actual timing of vehicle actions due to the display of numerical countdowns.
Innovation Solution
A surrounding situation display method and device using a varying display bar that synchronizes with the vehicle's actions, employing a display controller with scene identification, obstacle detection, and image combining circuits to visually indicate the timing of action changes through a colored region shifting within the displayed frame, aligning with the vehicle's and obstacle positions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If a numerical countdown is displayed to notify occupants of autonomous driving action changes, then the timing information is provided, but the occupant's perception may misalign with actual vehicle action timing due to subjective time counting
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a visual copy of the surrounding situation (bird's-eye view display showing vehicle and obstacles) and overlays a display bar that copies the temporal progression of vehicle actions onto this spatial representation. The display bar's indication point visually replicates the countdown timing within the contextual framework of the surrounding situation, allowing occupants to perceive timing accurately without subjective counting.
2Loss of time
If a numerical countdown is used to indicate timing, then time information is conveyed, but the display lacks synchronization with the actual vehicle action timing
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously updates the display bar's indication point position based on real-time vehicle state data and predicted action timing. The display controller receives feedback about actual vehicle actions and adjusts the display bar accordingly, ensuring synchronization between the visual indication and actual vehicle behavior. This closed-loop feedback mechanism maintains accurate timing synchronization.
Solution Approach 2:
The display bar is designed as a dynamic visual element where the indication point continuously moves along the bar according to the elapsed time and predicted action timing. Rather than a static numerical countdown, the system uses dynamic visual progression that adapts to changing vehicle states and surrounding situation, maintaining real-time synchronization with actual vehicle actions.
3Device complexity
If a simple numerical countdown is displayed, then the display is simple, but it fails to provide contextual information about the surrounding situation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the countdown timing information with the surrounding situation display by overlaying the display bar directly onto the bird's-eye view representation. The timing indication is combined with spatial information about vehicle position and obstacles, creating an integrated display that provides both contextual and temporal information simultaneously without requiring separate displays.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2B
Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
A surrounding situation display device detects a surrounding situation around a host vehicle (VI) with an autonomous driving function and displays the detected surrounding situation. The surrounding situation display device includes a display (2) configured to display a timing when an action of the host vehicle (VI) is changed by the autonomous driving function in a varying display bar that has a prescribed display frame and displays an indication position within the display frame while shifting the indication position. Since a timing for changes of lanes or a timing for start of traveling at an intersection is displayed in the varying display bar, an occupant can intuitively recognize a timing when an action changes and a sense of incongruity felt by the occupant can be reduced.