Windshield Head-Up Display Layout Without a Central Dashboard Screen
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need to reduce or eliminate the central display in motor vehicles while ensuring accessory information is accessible to occupants without parallax effects, only when necessary, and allowing for maximum flexibility in dashboard design, particularly in high-end vehicles for urban and racing use, and compatibility with polarized glasses.
Innovation Solution
A head-up display system with a projection unit integrated into the dashboard, projecting virtual images onto the windshield, controlled by a processing unit and selectively activated/deactivated via a control device, allowing personalized information display based on user preferences and vehicle use, with a polarized film for compatibility 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 accessibility is improved, but device complexity and dashboard design flexibility are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the accessory information display function from the traditional central display location and relocates it to the windshield area. The head-up display system projects information directly onto the windshield, separating the information display function from the physical central display structure, thereby eliminating the need for a complex central display unit while maintaining information accessibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions the information display from a two-dimensional central display screen to a three-dimensional virtual image projected onto the windshield. This dimensional change allows information to be displayed in the air space in front of the occupants, providing accessibility without requiring a physical display structure in the dashboard.
2Device complexity
If a central display is eliminated to simplify dashboard design, then device complexity is reduced, but information accessibility to occupants is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The windshield serves multiple functions: it acts as both the protective glazing and the display surface for accessory information. By utilizing the existing windshield structure for dual purposes, the system eliminates the need for a separate central display while maintaining information accessibility to all occupants regardless of their position in the vehicle.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a projection system as an intermediary between the information source and the occupants. This projection system creates virtual images in the air space, serving as a mediator that delivers information to occupants without requiring a physical display structure, thus simplifying the dashboard while maintaining accessibility.
3Loss of information
If accessory information is always displayed to ensure accessibility, then information availability is improved, but driver distraction and loss of time are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The head-up display system dynamically controls the display of accessory information based on driving conditions and user needs. Information is displayed only when necessary and can be selectively activated or deactivated, allowing the system to adapt between providing full information availability and minimizing driver distraction, thereby reducing unnecessary loss of driver attention time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms that allow occupants to control and personalize the display of accessory information. Based on user preferences and driving context, the system adjusts what information is displayed, ensuring information is available when needed while minimizing unnecessary displays that would distract the driver and consume their attention time.
4Reliability
If traditional mirrors and windshield are used to form virtual images at a distance, then optical system functionality is maintained, but parallax effects and viewing angle limitations are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates multiple localized virtual image positions corresponding to different occupant locations within the passenger compartment. Each occupant position has its own optimized virtual image location, ensuring that information is displayed without parallax effects and with consistent clarity for each specific viewing position, thereby improving viewing consistency across all positions.
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 or eliminates the need for a central display, providing essential information to drivers without distraction, ensuring parallax-free visibility from any point, and allowing for flexible dashboard design, with information availability only when needed, and compatibility with polarized glasses.
Implementation Method 1
The head-up display (30) comprises a projection unit (32) adapted to generate a light beam and a plurality of mirrors arranged so as to reflect the light beam onto a windshield (5)
Implementation Method 2
The windshield deflects the light beam. 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 and at a not null distance from the windshield itself
Implementation Method 3
with a polarized film for compatibility with polarized glasses
Data Source
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AI summary
A motor vehicle (1) is described comprising a passenger compartment (3); a dashboard (25) arranged within said passenger compartment (3) and delimiting the passenger compartment (3) at the front with reference to a normal forward moving direction of the motor vehicle (1) itself; a windshield (5) delimiting said passenger compartment (3) and contiguous with said dashboard (25); and a head-up display (30) configured to project at least a first image (29, 51, 52) containing an item of information accessory to the driving of the motor vehicle (1) on a first region (19) of the windshield (5); the head-up display (30) comprises a projector (32) housed in a second region (26) of said dashboard (25), and the first region (19) is defined by the windshield (5).