Windshield Head-Up Display Layout Without a Central Screen
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need to reduce or eliminate the central display in motor vehicles while ensuring that accessory information is available to occupants, without parallax effects, only when necessary, and with maximum design flexibility, particularly in high-end vehicles for urban and racing use, and even when polarized glasses are worn.
Innovation Solution
A head-up display system is integrated into the dashboard, projecting accessory information directly onto the windshield, allowing selective activation and personalization based on occupant preferences and vehicle use, using a projection unit and a polarized film to ensure visibility with polarized glasses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If a central display is used to provide accessory information to occupants, then information availability is improved, but device complexity and design flexibility are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the information display function from the traditional central display location and relocates it to the windshield surface. The projection unit projects accessory information directly onto the windshield, separating the display function from the dashboard structure and eliminating the need for a physical central display device.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a two-dimensional dashboard surface to the three-dimensional windshield surface for information display. By projecting information onto the windshield at various positions and orientations, the system utilizes the windshield's larger surface area and different spatial dimension to provide information without occupying dashboard space.
2Ease of manufacture
If a central display is eliminated to enhance design flexibility, then manufacturing ease is improved, but information availability to occupants deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The windshield serves multiple functions: it provides structural protection, maintains cabin pressure, and now also serves as an information display surface. By making the windshield a multi-functional element that combines its traditional roles with information display, the patent eliminates the need for a separate central display while preserving information availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the information display on the windshield surface rather than using a physical display device. The projection unit generates optical images that replicate the information content on the windshield, allowing occupants to view accessory information without a physical central display structure.
3Illumination intensity
If information is displayed on the windshield using traditional optical systems, then information visibility is improved, but parallax effects and visibility with polarized glasses occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different optical characteristics to different regions of the projected image on the windshield. The projection system adjusts the local optical properties of the light beams to ensure uniform visibility across different viewing positions and under different lighting conditions, including when occupants wear polarized glasses.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent dynamically adjusts optical parameters such as polarization angle, beam convergence, and projection intensity to maintain consistent information visibility. By changing these optical parameters based on viewing conditions, the system ensures reliable visibility whether occupants wear polarized glasses or not, and from different positions in the cabin.
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
This solution reduces the need for a central display, enhances design flexibility, provides parallax-free and personalized information availability, and ensures safe driving by projecting information only when needed, without distracting the driver.
Implementation Method 1
a projection unit controlled by the processing unit and adapted to generate a light beam
Implementation Method 2
using a projection unit and a polarized film to ensure visibility with polarized glasses
Implementation Method 3
a plurality of mirrors arranged so as to reflect the light beam onto a windshield. The windshield deflects the light beam.
Implementation Method 4
The mirrors and the windshield form, in the solutions of known type, an optical system configured to form the virtual image externally to the windshield
Data Source
AI summary
A motor vehicle is described comprising a passenger compartment; a dashboard arranged within said passenger compartment and delimiting the passenger compartment at the front with reference to a normal forward moving direction of the motor vehicle itself; a windshield delimiting said passenger compartment and contiguous with said dashboard; and a head-up display configured to project at least a first image containing an item of information accessory to the driving of the motor vehicle on a first region of the windshield; the head-up display comprises a projector housed in a second region of said dashboard, and the first region is defined by the windshield.