Display System

• US 20080309474A1
• Filed: 08/24/2005
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Fujimoto, Fumiaki, Aoki, Toshiya, Okamoto, Toshiya, Hamachi, Jun, Yoda, Kazuhiko, Oda, Kouichi
• Granted Patent: US 8,004,395 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/462
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/11 Instrument graphical user interfaces or menu aspects
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/10 Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/213 Virtual instruments
• 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: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/10 Mixing of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of an operation, e.g. adding, on the corresponding input pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/125 wherein one of the images is motion video
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/02 Graphics controller able to handle multiple formats, e.g. input or output formats
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2380/10 Automotive applications
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/003 Details of a display terminal, the details relating to the control arrangement of the display terminal and to the interfaces thereto specific for a CRT G09G1/165; for a flat panel G09G3/2092
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/022 using memory planes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports

Abstract

An instrument panel display system of displays vehicle information, amenity information, and safety information as images. In this instrument panel display system, data (image data, image layout data, and image output control data) for displaying the images are generated in a shared manner by a vehicle system processor, an amenity system processor, and a safety system processor. On account of this, the stability of image display on an instrument panel of a vehicle or the like is improved and hence safety of driving is increased.

Claims

1. :

A display system which is mounted on a controllable movable body and simultaneously displays, on a display device, images respectively corresponding to plural sets of information including information regarding the movable body,

the display system being characterized in that sets of data for displaying the respective images are generated by plural processors, in a shared manner.

2. :

The display system as defined in claim 1,

wherein, the processors are provided so as to correspond to the respective sets of information, and generate data for displaying, as images, the corresponding sets of information.

3. :

The display system as defined in claim 1, further comprising display control means for generating images to be displayed, by using the sets of data generated by the respective processors.

4. :

The display system as defined in Claim 1,

wherein, the sets of data for displaying the respective images include image data and image layout data.

9. :

The display system as defined in claim 1,

wherein, data for displaying an image corresponding to highly important information is generated by a processor which is different from a processor by which data for displaying an image corresponding to other types of information is generated.

10. :

The display system as defined in claim 1,

wherein, data for displaying an image corresponding to information which places a heavy processing load is generated by a processor which is different from a processor by which data for displaying an image corresponding to other types of data is generated.

11. :

The display system as defined in claim 1, characterized by being mounted on a vehicle.

28. :

A display control program, which causes a computer to function as the means of the display system defined in claim 1.

29. :

A computer-readable storage medium, which stores the display control program defined in claim 28.

5. :

A display system which is mounted on a controllable movable body and simultaneously displays, on a display device, images respectively corresponding to plural sets of information including information regarding the movable body,

the display system being characterized by including;

processors which correspond to the respective sets of information and generates image data and image layout data for displaying the images;

display control means for generating display data from the image data and the image layout data, the display control means being connected to the display device and the processors;

a transmission path which transmits the image data between the display control means and the processors; and

another transmission path which is different from said transmission path and transmits the image layout data.

6. :

A display system which is mounted on a controllable movable body and simultaneously displays, on a display device, images respectively corresponding to plural sets of information including information regarding the movable body,

the display system being characterized by including;

processors which correspond to the respective sets of information and generate image data for displaying the images;

display control means for generating display data from the image data, the display control means being connected to the display device and the processors;

an image layout table which is provided in the display control means and generates image layout data from the information regarding the movable body; and

a transmission path which connects the display control means with the processors and transmits the image data,

the display means generating the image layout data from the information regarding the movable body and with reference to the image layout table, and generating the display data by laying out the image data with reference to the image layout data.

7. :

The display system as defined in claim 6,

wherein, the image layout table is arranged to be changeable.

8. :

The display system as defined in claim 6,

wherein, the display control means includes a standard image interface which receives the sets of image data from the processors.

12. :

A display system which is mounted on a vehicle and simultaneously displays, on a display device, images respectively corresponding to plural sets of information including information regarding the vehicle,

the display system being characterized in that, the sets of information include vehicle information in regard of the vehicle and multimedia information which is different from the vehicle information, and data for displaying an image corresponding to the vehicle information is generated by a processor which is different from a processor by which an image corresponding to the multimedia information is generated.

13. :

The display system as defined in claim 12, further comprising;

amenity information which is the multimedia information and functions as additional information for driving;

safety information which is the multimedia information and is provided to improve safety of driving;

a vehicle system processor which deals with the vehicle information;

an amenity system processor which deals with the amenity information; and

a safety system processor which deals with the safety information,

the vehicle system processor generating image data and image layout data which correspond to the vehicle information, the amenity system processor generating image data and image layout data which correspond to the amenity information, and the safety system processor generating image data and image layout data which correspond to the safety information.

14. :

The display system as defined in claim 13,

wherein, the display control means controls image display by using the sets of data generated by the processors.

15. :

The display system as defined in claim 14,

wherein, the display control means includes an image layout table, and generates, using the image data, vehicle data, and the image layout table, display data for listing the images indicating the respective sets of information.

16. :

The display system as defined in claim 15,

wherein, the image data and the image layout data are transmitted to the display control means, through different transmission paths.

17. :

A display system which is mounted on a controllable movable body and simultaneously displays, on a display device, images respectively corresponding to plural sets of information including information regarding the movable body,

the display system being characterized by including;

processors which correspond to the respective sets of information and generate image data for displaying the images;

display control means for generating display data from the image data and image layout data, the display control means being connected to the display device and the processors; and

storage means for storing in advance still image data included in the display data, the storage means being provided in the display control means.

18. :

The display system as defined in claim 17,

wherein, the storage means stores an image layout table for generating the image layout data, and

the display control means generates the image layout data with reference to the image layout table stored in the storage means.

19. :

The display system as defined in claim 17,

wherein, provided that, in regard of the images displayed on the display device, a process to generate a layout of the images is a main event whereas a process to change looks of the images in the layout is a sub event, the display control means executes the main event and the sub event in accordance with the image layout data and the image data, and outputs a result of execution as the display data.

20. :

The display system as defined in claim 19,

wherein, among the image data used in the main event and the sub event, still image data is stored in the storage means.

21. :

The display system as defined in claim 19,

wherein, among the image data used in the main event, still image data is stored in the storage means, and

the image data used in the sub event is generated by the processors.

22. :

The display system as defined in claim 19,

wherein, the image data used in the main event is generated by the processors, and

among the image data used in the sub event, still image data is stored in the storage means.

23. :

The display system as defined in claim 19,

wherein, still image data used in the main event and the sub event is generated by the processors.

24. :

The display system as defined in claim 19,

wherein, the storage means stores all sets of still image data used in the main event and the sub event.

25. :

The display system as defined in claim 19,

wherein, the image data processed in the main event constitutes a fuel gauge, a shift indicator, a needle of a speedometer, etc., whereas the image data processed in the sub event changes a look of an image which is displayed using the image data processed in the main event.

26. :

The display system as defined in claim 17,

wherein, in a case where images displayed using the display data partly overlaps one another, the display control means alpha-blends overlapped part of the images.

27. :

A display control method for a display system which is mounted on a controllable movable body and simultaneously displays, on a display device, images respectively corresponding to plural sets of information including information regarding the movable body,

the method being characterized by comprising the step of generating, in a shared manner, sets of data for displaying the images by plural processors.