Display device and method for vehicle

• US 20070078598A1
• Filed: 09/26/2006
• Published: 04/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Shibata, Hirokazu, Sawaki, Masaru, Kawakami, Hidehiko, Kato, Miki, Taguchi, Kiyotaka, Watanabe, Akihiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,966,123 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/211
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/188 Displaying information using colour changes
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/29 Instruments characterised by the way in which information is handled, e.g. showing information on plural displays or prioritising information according to driving conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/60 Instruments characterised by their location or relative disposition in or on vehicles arrangements of lighting devices on dashboards B60Q3/10
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3632 Guidance using simplified or iconic instructions, e.g. using arrows G01C21/365 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/367 Details, e.g. road map scale, orientation, zooming, illumination, level of detail, scrolling of road map or positioning of current position marker
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3697 Output of additional, non-guidance related information, e.g. low fuel level G01C21/3679 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/102 using electrical means

Abstract

A display device for a vehicle has a display unit that has a meter display area and a navigation display area. The meter display area displays vehicle operation condition, and the navigation display area displays travel route guidance. When a display color changes in the travel route guidance in the navigation display area, color of the vehicle operation condition in the meter display area is also changed so that the color of the travel route guidance becomes more eye-catching than the vehicle operation condition.

Claims

1. A display device for a vehicle comprising:

a display unit that has first and second display areas to display information associated with travel of a vehicle in the first and second areas by using visual objects; and

a color changing unit for changing color of the object displayed in the first area on the basis of color of the object displayed in the second area.

2. The display device according to claim 1, wherein:

the information displayed in the first area is at least one of a travel speed of the vehicle, a rotation speed of an engine, a temperature of cooling water for the engine and a fuel residual amount in the vehicle; and

the information displayed in the second area is at least one of route guidance information and warning information.

3. The display device according to claim 1, wherein:

the color changing unit changes the color of the object displayed in the first area so that the color of the object displayed in the first area is similar to the color of the object displayed in the second area.

4. The display device according to claim 3, wherein:

when the information displayed in the second area has a higher importance level, the color changing unit changes the color of the object displayed in the first area so that the object displayed in the second area is more eye-catching than that in the first area.

5. The display device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an instruction receiving unit for receiving an operation instruction from a user,

wherein the color changing unit returns the color of the object displayed in the first area to original one when the instruction receiving unit accepts a specific instruction from the user after the color of the object displayed in the first area is changed.

6. A program unit for making a computer function as the color changing unit in the display device according to claim 1.

7. A display method for a vehicle comprising:

displaying, in a display unit that has a meter display area and a navigation display area, vehicle operation condition and travel route guidance, respectively;

detecting a color change in the travel route guidance in the navigation display area; and

changing, in response to a detection of the color change in the travel route guidance, color of the vehicle operation condition in the meter display area so that the color of the travel route guidance becomes more eye-catching than the vehicle operation condition.

8. The display method according to claim 7, wherein:

the changing changes the color of the vehicle operation condition in the meter display area to a color similar to changed color of the travel route guidance.

9. The display method according to claim 7, further comprising:

receiving an operation instruction from a user; and

returning, in response to the operation instruction, the color of the vehicle operation condition to the color, which was before being changed.

10. The display method according to claim 7, further comprising:

retrieving, in response to the detection of the color change in the navigation display area, the color of the vehicle operation condition from a color data table stored in a memory defining a color relation between the vehicle operation condition and the travel route guidance.

11. A display device for a vehicle comprising:

a display unit having a meter display area for displaying a meter and a navigation data display area for displaying a navigation system;

a drawing unit for making a drawing on the display unit;

a meter control unit for providing meter information;

a meter information retrieving unit for retrieving the meter information from the meter control unit; and

a navigation control unit for creating meter display navigation data to be displayed in the navigation data display area in accordance with the retrieved meter information and transmitting the meter display navigation data thus created to the drawing unit.

12. The display device according to claim 11, wherein:

the meter control unit further transmits meter drawing data to be displayed in the meter display area to the drawing unit.

13. The display device according to claim 11, wherein:

the meter information contain at least one of display color information of the meter, character design information, display brightness information, and information associated with a size of the navigation data display area or a display position of the navigation data display area on the meter.

14. The display device according to claim 13, wherein:

the navigation control unit creates the meter display navigation data in accordance with the display color information of the meter.

15. The display device according to claim 13, wherein:

the navigation control unit creates the meter display navigation data in accordance with the character design information.

16. The display device according to claim 13, wherein:

the navigation control unit creates the meter display navigation data in accordance with the display brightness information.

17. The display device according to claim 13, wherein:

the navigation control unit creates the meter display navigation data in accordance with the information associated with the size of the navigation data display area or the display position of the navigation data display area on the meter.

18. The display device according to claim 17, wherein:

the navigation control unit changes at least one of a reduction scale, character design and the number of character arrays in a map to be displayed in the navigation data display area in accordance with the information associated with the size of the navigation data display area or the display position of the navigation data display area on the meter.

19. The display device according to claim 13, further comprising:

a navigation data processing unit for processing the meter display navigation data in an area adjacent to the meter display area in accordance with display content of the meter.

20. The display device according to claim 19, wherein:

the navigation data processing unit changes a display design of the meter display navigation data in the area adjacent to the meter display area so that the display design is matched with the display content of the meter.

21. A display device for a vehicle comprising:

a meter main area including meters and indicators appended to the meters, and having an emphasis display area, the meters and the indicators being arranged while assembled with one another so that basic operation state information of the vehicle is visually displayed by the meters and the indicators, and the emphasis display area being switchable between an emphasized display state based on a predetermined emphasis display color and a non-emphasized display state from which the emphasized display state is released;

an auxiliary image display area that has a image displaying color pixel matrix separated and compartmented from the meter main area and color-displays an auxiliary image containing display information other than the basic operation state information; and

a display control unit having a display color restriction converting unit for setting as a restriction target monitor area a graphic area which belongs to graphic areas displayed in the pixel matrix of the auxiliary image display area and whose display color is set to a pre-restriction set color of the same type as the emphasized display color when the display state of the emphasis display area is set to the non-emphasized display state, and converting the display color of the restriction target monitor area to a post-restriction set color having a larger color difference from the emphasized display color than the pre-restriction set color in connection with the switching of the emphasis display area at the meter main part side from the non-emphasized display state to the emphasized display state.

22. The display device according to claim 21, wherein:

the emphasis display area is a warning display area whose display state is set to the emphasized display state on the basis of warning activating information contained in the basic operation state information.

23. The display device according to claim 22, wherein:

the warning display area is set as one of the indicators.

24. The display device according to claim 23, wherein:

hue of the emphasized display color set to the warning display area is set in a section passing from 10YR through 10R to 10P on a hue circle.

25. The display device according to claim 21, wherein:

the meter main area is displayed integrally with the auxiliary image display area on a display panel having a color pixel matrix for image display; and

the emphasized display area is set as a restriction origin monitor area corresponding to a graphic area displayed on the panel display together with the image of the meter with the emphasized display color.

26. The display device according to claim 25, wherein:

a display image of the meter does not include the emphasis display area.

27. The display device according to claim 21, wherein:

the auxiliary image is an output image of a navigation image.

28. The display device according to claim 27, wherein:

the output image includes a map image for route guidance of the navigation device; and

the restriction target monitor area is a graphic image of a present position pointer for indicating the present position of the vehicle on the map image.

29. The display device according to claim 25, wherein the display control unit comprises:

a meter drawing and creating unit for retrieving from an external device basic operation state information to be reflected to the display state of the meter main area, and creating drawing data of the meter main area indicating the display state corresponding to the basic operation state information;

an auxiliary image drawing and creating unit for creating color drawing data of the auxiliary image; and

an image synthesizing and outputting controller for combining the drawing data of the meter main area from the meter drawing and creating unit and the drawing data of the auxiliary image from the auxiliary image drawing and creating unit and displaying and outputting the meter main area on the display panel together with the auxiliary image, wherein the meter drawing and creating unit monitors the display color of the restriction origin monitor area and transmits color restriction information to the auxiliary image drawing and creating unit when the display set color of the restriction origin monitor area is the emphasized display color, and

the auxiliary image drawing and creating unit receives the color restriction information, searches the restriction target monitor area in the auxiliary image and executes processing required to convert the display color of the restriction target monitor area from the pre-restriction set color to the post-restriction set color.

30. The display device according to claim 21, wherein:

the display color restriction converting unit converts the pre-restriction set color to the post-restriction set color which is differentiated from the pre-restriction set color by a fixed hue or more.

31. The display device according to claim 30, wherein:

the hue of the post-restriction set color is set in a section passing from 5GY through 5GB to 5PB on a hue circle.

32. The display device according to claim 21, wherein:

the display color restriction converting unit converts the pre-restriction set color to the post-restriction set color, which is smaller than the pre-restriction set color in at least one of color saturation and brightness by a fixed amount or more.

33. The display device according to claim 32, wherein:

the display control unit reduces the color saturation of the restriction origin monitor area in the auxiliary image display area together with the surrounding image area.

34. The display device according to claim 21, wherein:

the display color restricting conversion unit finds out a chromaticity coordinate point which is spaced from the chromaticity coordinate point corresponding to the pre-restriction set color on a predetermined chromaticity diagram by a predetermined distance, and sets the display color corresponding to the chromaticity coordinate point as the post restriction set color.

35. A display device for a vehicle comprising:

a display unit having a first display area and a second display area for displaying first information and second information, which varies with operations of the vehicle and different from each other, respectively; and

a control unit for changing a mode of display of the first information on the first display area based on the second information on the second display area, thereby changing a degree of distinction of the first information from the second information.

36. The display device according to claim 35, wherein:

the mode of display is a color of the first information.

37. The display device according to claim 36, wherein:

the first information and the second information are one and the other of a vehicle engine operation condition and a route guidance of a navigation, respectively.