Vehicular Display System Using Point-to-Multipoint Communication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current avionics control systems require complex programming for client systems to interface and interact with multiple display surfaces, posing challenges in flexibility and complexity, especially in real-time applications like 'brake-by-wire' or 'steer-by-wire' systems where reliability and bandwidth are critical.
Innovation Solution
A vehicular control system with display means and memory units that share configuration data across multiple physical display units, allowing point-to-multipoint communication and processing, enabling flexible display configurations and reducing programming complexity by allowing symbolic entities to be placed on any number of physical units with minimal configuration, and supporting user interaction and emergency modes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If separate control is implemented for each physical display surface, then reliability and data delivery are ensured, but programming complexity and system complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The control module is designed to handle multiple display surfaces through a universal point-to-multipoint communication interface. Instead of implementing separate control logic for each display surface, the control module uses a single configuration data structure that can describe entities to be displayed on any number of physical display surfaces, making the control mechanism universal and multi-functional
Solution Approach 2:
The invention uses configuration data that can be copied and applied across multiple display surfaces. The same configuration data describing displayable entities is transmitted to multiple display surfaces via point-to-multipoint communication, allowing consistent rendering without requiring separate programming for each surface
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple client systems interface with multiple display surfaces, then functionality and information availability increase, but programming complexity and implementation difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The control module serves as a universal interface that can manage multiple client systems and multiple display surfaces simultaneously. The point-to-multipoint communication mechanism allows a single control module to handle communications with multiple displays without requiring separate control logic for each client-display pair
Solution Approach 2:
The control module acts as an intermediary between client systems and display surfaces. It receives data from client systems and distributes it to multiple display surfaces using point-to-multipoint communication, simplifying the interface architecture by eliminating the need for direct peer-to-peer programming between each client and display combination
Data Source
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AI summary
A vehicular control system (1), the system comprising: display means (2, 3) each comprising a physical display unit (13, 16) and memory means (12, 15) comprising information related to descriptions of a plurality of displayable entities and first configuration data, associated to a first control module (C1-CN), said first configuration data comprising information on configuration of the displayable entities, based on references to the descriptions of the plurality of displayable entities. According to the invention the system comprises a plurality of display means (2, 3), the memory means (12, 15) of each display means (2, 3) is provided with a copy of the first configuration data, the first control module (C1-CN) is arranged to transmit data based on point-to-multipoint communication to each of the plurality of display means (2, 3), the plurality of display means (2, 3) each comprises processing means (11, 14) operatively coupled to said memory means (12, 15), said processing means (11, 14) arranged to process the entities based on received data from the first control module (C1-CN), and to present the result of the processing on the physical display unit (13, 16) of each of the display means (2, 3).