Vehicle display which reduces driver's recognition time of alarm display

• US 5,801,667 A
• Filed: 05/12/1995
• Issued: 09/01/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Yagihashi, Wataru, Yanagishima, Takayuki, Shimizu, Youji, Jindo, Tomio
• Primary Examiner(s): Peng, John K.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Miller, John W.
• Application Number:
  US08/439,782
• Time in Patent Office: 1,208 Days
• Field of Search: 345/7, 345/8, 345/9, 340/901-905, 340/945, 340/961, 340/963, 340/971, 340/983, 340/425.5, 340/435, 340/436, 359/630, 348/113, 348/115, 348/118, 348/119, 348/121-123
• US Class Current: 345/7
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0231 Circuits relating to the driving or the functioning of the vehicle monitoring tyres B60C23/00; indicating overspeed B60K31/00; for dash boards B60K37/00, B60Q3/10; for indicating emergencies B60Q1/52; brake control systems B60T; registering or indicating the working of vehicles G07C5/00; measuring distance G01C, e.g. combinations of speed and distance G01C23/00; engine indicators G01L; measuring speed or acceleration G01P
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

A vehicle display device including an information display unit for displaying prescribed information for a vehicle, an alarm need state detection unit for detecting a prescribed state where an alarm for the vehicle is needed, an alarm display unit for performing an alarm display on the basis of the detection of the alarm need state detection unit, an eye-fixed target detection unit for detecting an object on which a driver fixes his eyes as an eye-fixed target, a display cancel unit for canceling the eye-fixed target or its neighboring information display, and a delay unit for controlling the alarm display unit to perform the alarm display after a predetermined time lapse from the display cancellation of the display cancel unit.

Claims

1. A vehicle display system, comprising:

a first information display;

an alarm display;

an alarm state detector;

a circuit responsive to detection of an alarm state by the alarm state detector, for canceling the first information display and activating the alarm display after a predetermined time has elapsed after the cancellation of the first information display;

a second information display; and

a target detector for determining whether a driver'"'"'s eyes are fixed on the first or the second information display,

wherein the circuit cancels the first information display if the target detector determines that the driver'"'"'s eyes are fixed on the first information display and cancels the second information display if the target detector determines that the driver'"'"'s eyes are fixed on the second information display.

2. The vehicle display system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the target detector comprises a line-of-sight detector having an eye camera for producing a signal in accordance with movements of the driver'"'"'s eyes, the signal being used to determine whether the driver'"'"'s eyes are fixed on the first or the second information display.

3. A vehicle display device, comprising:

an information display unit for displaying a prescribed information for a vehicle;

an alarm need state detector for detecting a prescribed state where an alarm for the vehicle is needed;

an alarm display unit for displaying an alarm on the basis of the detection of said alarm need state detector;

an eye-fixed target detector for detecting an eye-fixed target on which driver'"'"'s eyes are fixed;

a display cancel circuit for canceling the prescribed information display near the eye-fixed target; and

a delay circuit for controlling said alarm display unit displaying an alarm after a predetermined time lapses from the display cancellation by said display cancel circuit.

4. The vehicle display device as claimed in claim 3, wherein said display cancel circuit is provided with an attention call circuit for inducing a display variation to the prescribed information delay near the eye-fixed target just before said display cancel circuit carries out the display cancellation.

5. The vehicle display device as claimed in claim 3, wherein said delay circuit alters the predetermined time to be delayed in accordance with an emergency degree of the alarm display.

6. The vehicle display device as claimed in claim 4, further including a physiological state detector for detecting a physiological state of a driver, and a physiology response varying circuit for varying at least one of said attention call circuit, said delay circuit and said alarm display unit in accordance with the physiological state detected by said physiological state detector.

7. The vehicle display device as claimed in claim 4, further including vehicle state detector for detecting a vehicle running state and vehicle response varying circuit for varying at least one of said attention call circuit, said delay circuit and said alarm display unit in accordance with the vehicle running state.

8. The vehicle display device as claimed in claim 4, further including environmental state detector for detecting an environmental state of the running vehicle and environment response varying circuit for varying at least one of said attention call circuit, said delay circuit and said alarm display unit in accordance with the environmental state of the running vehicle.

9. The vehicle display device as claimed in claim 4, wherein said attention call circuit performs at least one of variation of brightness, variation of color, variation of size and turning on-and-off of the prescribed information display near the eye-fixed target.

10. The vehicle display device as claimed in claim 3, wherein said alarm display unit changes the position of the alarm display in accordance with variation of the eye-fixed target, and said alarm display unit is provided with alarm display position altering circuit for altering the position of the alarm display in accordance with the variation of the eye-fixed target.

11. The vehicle display device as claimed in claim 10, wherein said alarm display unit changes the alarm display position in accordance with an emergency degree of the alarm display.

12. The vehicle display device as claimed in claim 11 wherein, when the eye-fixed target is a meter cluster or a navigation system, said alarm display unit displays on a head-up display an alarm whose emergency degree is not so high, and displays within the eye-fixed target an alarm whose emergency degree is high.

13. The vehicle display device as claimed in claim 10, wherein when the eye-fixed target is a speedometer of the meter cluster, said display cancel circuit displays a speed on the head-up display just after a speedometer display is canceled.

14. The vehicle display device as claimed in claim 3, wherein said display cancel circuit cancels display of information other than the alarm display and reduces display brightness when the prescribed information display near the eye-fixed target is canceled.

15. The vehicle display device as claimed in claim 3, wherein said eye-fixed target detector comprises a line-of-sight detector.

16. The vehicle display device as claimed in claim 3, wherein said eye-fixed detector judges, as the eye-fixed target, an information display just before a switch-on operation by a driver.

17. The vehicle display device as claimed in claims 3, wherein said eye-fixed target detector detects, as the eye-fixed target, an information display corresponding to an operation of a driver, wherein said delay circuit sets a predetermined time for an alarm display whose emergency degree is not high while said delay circuit does not set a predetermined time for an alarm display whose emergency degree is high, and wherein said alarm display unit displays the alarm display whose emergency degree is not high after the operation of the driver is completed while said alarm display unit displays the alarm display of high emergency degree within the information display during the operation of the driver.