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Display devices

  • US 4,015,080 A
  • Filed: 01/13/1976
  • Issued: 03/29/1977
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/30/1973
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A head-up display system for a vehicle comprising:

  • a. a semi-reflective image combiner element adapted to be installed in the vehicle on the line of sight of an observer in the vehicle of a scene outside the vehicle;

    b. a display surface;

    c. activating means operable to activate substantially any portion of the said surface so as to cause the said portion to emit light;

    d. between the combiner element and the display surface a collimating optical system which, when a display is present on the display surface as a result of activation as aforesaid, projects a collimated image of the display to the combiner element for reflection to the observer'"'"'s eyes, thereby effectively superimposing the image of the display on the observer'"'"'s view of the outside scene through the combiner;

    e. a first waveform generator responsive to input data signals derived from sensors carried by the vehicle and representing the relationship of the vehicle to its environment so as to repetitively develop a time sequence of output signals capable of being employed for controlling the activating means to activate desired line segments of the display surface thereby to present at said surface symbols representative of the aforesaid relationship;

    f. a second waveform generator operable in response to signals derived from an imaging sensor carried by the vehicle to develop a raster scan output signal representative of the vehicle environment as sensed by the imaging sensor during the scan;

    g. a symbol storage device operable in response to output signals from the first waveform generator so as to store symbols to be presented at the display surface;

    h. a symbol read-out arrangement operable to develop a raster scan output signal representative of the symbols stored in the symbol storage arrangement, said output signal having a higher scan rate than the output signal of said second waveform generator;

    i. an image storage device operable in response to the output signal of the second waveform generator so as to store a representation of the environment sensed by the imaging sensor;

    j. an image read-out arrangement operable to develop a raster scan output signal representative of the representation of the environment stored in the image storage device, the image read-out arrangement output signal having the same format as the symbol read-out arrangement output signal;

    k. signal combiner circuitry operable to receive the output signals from both read-out arrangements so as to develop a raster scan output signal representative of both said symbols and said environment; and

    l. means for connecting either the output of the signal combiner circuitry or the output signal of the first waveform generator to the activating means.

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