Warning device for displaying information in a vehicle

• US 5,519,536 A
• Filed: 05/02/1994
• Issued: 05/21/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: VDO Adolf Schindling AG (Vodafone Group PLC)
• Inventors: Hoehn, Wolfgang
• Primary Examiner(s): Epps, Georgia Y.
• Assistant Examiner(s): MACK, RICKY LEVERN
• Application Number:
  US08/236,959
• Time in Patent Office: 750 Days
• Field of Search: 359/630, 359/15, 359/13, 345/7, 345/9, 353/13, 353/14, 353/46
• US Class Current: 359/630
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/334 Projection means
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/785 on or in relation to the windshield or windows
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/334 Projection means
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2370/785 on or in relation to the windshield or windows
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• 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: B63B 45/00 Arrangements or adaptations of signalling or lighting devices arrangement of signalling or lighting devices, the mounting or supporting thereof or circuits therefor, for vehicles in general B60Q; life-buoys, -belts, -jackets, -suits or the like, characterised by signalling means B63C9/20; lighting devices or systems therefor F21L, F21S
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 1/18 with arrangements for signalling that a predetermined value of an unspecified parameter has been exceeded G01D1/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0112 comprising device for genereting colour display
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0118 comprising devices for improving the contrast of the display / brillance control visibility
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0154 with movable elements
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0165 associated with a head-down display
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/01 Head-up displays

Abstract

A warning device for displaying information in a vehicle, particularly a motor vehicle, the warning device having a display of the information presented as a virtual image in a visible region of the windshield of the vehicle. In order to make certain that a warning information is transmitted with great persistence to the party to be warned, the invention provides that the information be mirrored into the windshield on a larger scale within increasing intensity of warning.

Claims

1. A warning device for displaying information in a vehicle, the warning device having a display providing information which is mirrored as a virtual image within a visible region of a windshield of the vehicle;

and

means for changing the size of said virtual image, allowing the information to be imaged on a larger scale with increasing intensity of a warning.

2. A warning device according to claim 1, wherein the information is shown with increasing intensity of warning on a scale with increases continuously with the intensity of the warning.

3. A warning device according to claim 1, wherein

the information is shown in a different color as the intensity of the warning increases.

4. A warning device according to claim 1, wherein

the display permits information presented on the display to be varied.

5. A warning device according to claim 1, wherein

the display is a static display.

6. A warning device according to claim 1, further comprising

a lens system arranged between the display and the windshield, a change in the imaging scale of the information being effected by a displacement of the lens system relative to the display.

7. A warning device according to claim 1, further comprising

a lens system arranged between the display and the windshield, the lens system having a displacable lens, a change in the imaging scale of the information being effected by a displacement of the lens within the lens system.

8. A warning device according to claim 7, further comprising an adjustment drive for moving the lens.

9. A warning device according to claim 6, further comprising

a housing and at least one source of light disposed within the housing, the lens system being displaceably supported within the housing, the housing receiving the display developed as a diapositive, the at least one source of light being arranged behind the display, and the adjustment drive being mounted in the housing.

10. A warning device according to claim 9, wherein

the housing is adapted to be mounted in an instrument panel of the vehicle.

11. A warning device according to claim 1, further comprising

a translucent display unit having a grid, the translucent display unit being arranged in the ray path between the display and the windshield.

12. A warning device according to claim 8, wherein the displacement of the lens by the adjustment drive adapts the warning device for indicating the distance of the vehicle from an object, particularly the distance of an automobile from another automobile traveling in front of it.

13. A warning device according to claim 11, wherein

the translucent display comprises a cover glass with said grid being on the cover glass;

and

the grid of the translucent display unit is a grid of 50 to 100 meters.

14. A warning device according to claim 11, wherein the grid is mirrored as a virtual image within said visible region of said windshield, a size of the grid remaining constant during a changing of the size of the virtual image of the information.