Onboard display device

• US 20050046760A1
• Filed: 06/29/2004
• Published: 03/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Usami, Tomohide
• Granted Patent: US 7,515,133 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 349/17
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/133382 Heating or cooling of liquid crystal cells other than for activation, e.g. circuits or arrangements for temperature control, stabilisation or uniform distribution over the cell

Abstract

A display device for a vehicle includes a liquid crystal display (LCD), a panel heater, and a display control circuit. The LCD has a LCD panel and the panel heater is attached to a front of the LCD panel. The display control circuit detects the current time and determines whether the current time is five minutes ahead of a scheduled start time stored in a memory. If so, the display control circuit starts driving the panel heater for warming up the LCD to a proper temperature for providing clear images by the scheduled start time.

Claims

1. An onboard display device comprising:

a liquid crystal display installed in a vehicle;

a heating unit that warms up the liquid crystal display;

storage means that stores the scheduled start time of a vehicle;

clock means that detects a current time; and

control means that drives the heating unit for warming up the liquid crystal display according to the current time and the scheduled time, wherein

the control means starts the heating unit driving control at a time having a predetermined time difference with respect to the scheduled time detected through a comparison between the current time and the scheduled time.

2. The onboard display device according to claim 1, wherein the scheduled start time is inputted by a user of the vehicle.

3. The onboard display device according to claim 1, wherein the time is a predetermined period ahead of the scheduled start time.

4. The onboard display device according to claim 1, wherein the control means further includes:

time comparing means that compares the current time with the scheduled start time;

time determining means that determines whether the current time is the predetermined period ahead of the scheduled start time; and

heating unit driving means that starts the heating unit the predetermined period ahead of the scheduled start time.

5. The onboard display device according to claim 1, further comprising a start time determining means that determines a start time of the vehicle, wherein:

the start time detecting means includes day detecting means, start time estimating means, and start time storing means;

the day detecting means detects a day of a current day from the clock means;

the start time estimating means estimates a start time of the current day based on history data; and

the start time storing means stores the start time in the storage means as a scheduled start time.

6. The onboard display device according to claim 1, further comprising a power-on detecting means that detects a power-on of the vehicle, wherein:

the control means includes a elapsed time determination means; and

the elapsed time determination means determines whether the power-on is detected within a predetermined elapsed time from the scheduled start time for examining necessity to terminate the heating unit driving control.

7. The onboard display device according to claim 6, wherein the control means includes a driving control terminating means that terminates the heating unit driving control when the necessity is confirmed.

8. A method for controlling a driving of a heating unit provided for warming up a liquid crystal display installed in a vehicle, comprising:

detecting a current time;

determining whether the current time has a predetermined time difference with respect to a scheduled start time stored in storage means; and

driving the heating unit when the current time has the predetermined time difference with respect to the scheduled start time for warming up the liquid crystal display.

9. The method for controlling a driving of a heating unit according to claim 8, wherein the determining step determines whether the current time is a predetermined period ahead of the scheduled start time.

10. The method for controlling a driving of a heating unit according to claim 8, further comprising:

receiving the scheduled time from a user; and

storing the received scheduled time in the storage member.

11. The method for controlling a driving of a heating unit according to claim 8, further comprising:

detecting a day of a week of a current day;

estimating a start time based on start times in history data stored in the storage member regarding the day of the week; and

storing the estimated start time in the storage member as a scheduled start time.

12. The method for controlling a driving of a heating unit according to claim 8, further comprising:

detecting a power-on of the vehicle;

detecting an elapsed time from the scheduled start time;

determining whether the power-on is detected within a predetermined elapsed time; and

terminating the heating unit driving control when the power-on is not detected within the predetermined elapsed time.