Heads Up Display System

• US 20080088527A1
• Filed: 10/17/2006
• Published: 04/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: McFadyen, Doug, Kadantseva, Tatiana Pavlovna, van Baarsen, John Peter, Shindo, Takashi, Gillett, Kevin, Fujimori, Keitaro
• Application Number:
  US11/550,389
• Publication Number:
  US 20080088527A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/7
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/011 comprising device for correcting geometrical aberrations, distortion
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/014 comprising information/image processing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/01 Head-up displays

Abstract

A vehicle having a heads up display (HUD) system is provided. The HUD system includes an image rendering device configured to provide a distorted representation of image data to a non-planar surface within a field of view of an occupant of the vehicle. Warp image circuitry configured to store offsets to be applied to the image data to generate the distorted representation provided to the image rendering device is included in the HUD system. The offsets represent respective distances for moving coordinates of a portion of pixels within the image data and the offsets are stored within a memory region of the warp image circuitry. The portion of pixels correspond to vertices of polygons. The offsets are derived through calibration data provided to the warp image circuitry. The calibration data is selected from one of a plurality of view positions for the occupant.

Claims

1. A vehicle having a heads up display (HUD) system, comprising:

an image rendering device configured to provide a distorted representation of image data to a non-planar surface within a field of view of an occupant of the vehicle; and

warp image circuitry configured to store offsets to be applied to the image data to generate the distorted representation provided to the image rendering device, the offsets representing respective distances for moving coordinates of a portion of pixels within the image data and stored within a memory region of the warp image circuitry, the portion of pixels corresponding to vertices of polygons, the offsets being derived through calibration data provided to the warp image circuitry, the calibration data being selected from one of a plurality of view positions for the occupant.

2. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the non-planar surface is a windshield of the vehicle.

3. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the image rendering device is located below a line of sight of the occupant.

4. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the image rendering device is located above a line of sight of the occupant.

5. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the image data displays data from an instrument panel of the vehicle.

6. The vehicle of claim 5, wherein the image data includes operating information unavailable on the instrument panel but tracked by the vehicle.

7. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the vehicle is one of a land based vehicle, a water based vehicle, or an air based vehicle.

8. A heads up display (HUD), comprising:

a memory storing offsets to be applied to image data to generate a distorted representation of the image data;

warp image logic configured to map the image data to a non-planar surface and calculate an amount of distortion introduced into polygon sections of the image data on the non-planar surface, the warp image logic further configured to determine an inverse of the amount of distortion to be applied to the image data to attenuate the amount of distortion introduced by the non-planar surface; and

an image rendering device configured to direct the inverted and distorted representation of the image data to the non-planar surface.

9. The HUD of claim 8, further comprising:

an interface module enabling communication between the memory and the warp image logic, the interface module including a counter to determine one of whether to read offset data from the memory to calculate a pixel location or to interpolate the pixel location through the warp image logic.

10. The HUD of claim 8, further comprising:

a register block storing data providing an image size and a size associated with the polygon sections.

11. The HUD of claim 8, wherein the non-planar surface is a windshield of a vehicle.

12. The HUD of claim 8, wherein the non-planar surface is one of a visor of a helmet or a lens of a pair of glasses.

13. The HUD of claim 8, wherein the memory stores calibration data used to generate the offsets.

14. The HUD of claim 13, wherein multiple sets of calibration data is stored, each of the multiple sets of calibration data corresponding to a viewpoint within a device containing the HUD.

15. The HUD of claim 14, wherein the device containing the HUD is a vehicle.

16. A digitally based heads up display (HUD) system capable of presenting a non-distorted image off of a non-planar surface, comprising:

a calibration module configured to generate a set of inputs for a de-warping process;

warp image circuitry configured to execute the de-warping process, the warp image circuitry generating a set of offsets to be applied to a portion of image data, the offsets generated from the set of inputs of the calibration module, the warp image circuitry further configured to determine an amount of distortion experienced by the image data from the non-planar surface to generate an inverse of the amount of distortion and apply the inverse of the amount of distortion to the image data; and

an image rendering device receiving the image data having the inverse amount of distortion applied thereto, the image rendering device directing the image data having the inverse amount of distortion to the non-planar surface.

17. The digitally based HUD system of claim 16, wherein the warp image circuitry and the image rendering device are integrated into a vehicle and the calibration module is a detachable module that supplies the set of inputs and remains separate from the vehicle.

18. The digitally based HUD system of claim 16, wherein the calibration module generates a plurality of sets of inputs, each of the sets on inputs associated with a corresponding viewpoint through the non-planar surface.