Device and method for displaying pictograms in a vehicle

• US 6,909,407 B1
• Filed: 09/03/1999
• Issued: 06/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Mannesmann VDO AG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Lemke, Rainer, Spaderna, Josef, Klostermeier, Michael, Adams, Jürgen, Schradi, Stefan
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Xiao
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Kevin M.
• Application Number:
  US09/390,532
• Time in Patent Office: 2,118 Days
• Field of Search: 345 7- 9, 345/173, 345/156, 345/157, 345/87, 345/204, 345/804, 345/467, 345/854, 345/839, 345/837, 345/841, 345/829, 345/856, 715/841, 715/856, 702/50, 702/189
• US Class Current: 345/7
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 9/35 being liquid crystals G09F9/302 takes precedence; liquid crystal materials C09K19/00; liquid crystal panels comprising a number of electrodes in a single cell per se G02F1/13
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/343 for systems having a character code-mapped display memory

Abstract

A device for displaying pictograms in a vehicle wherein the device comprises a control unit and a display unit, in particular an LCD display unit, the control unit controlling the display unit, and a method for operating the device, wherein

• a) the display unit is divided into symbol fields (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) which are arranged one next to the other in a row, the control unit only ever displaying one pictogram in each symbol field simultaneously,
• b) the control unit always displays in a specific symbol field (2) each new pictogram which is to be displayed in the symbol fields (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) which are arranged one next to the other in a row, and displaces by one symbol field the pictograms which have already been displayed, without changing their order,
• c) a control element (13) is provided with which a coherent section of the pictograms which are arranged one next to the other in a row can be displayed in the symbol fields of the display unit if more pictograms are to be displayed simultaneously than symbol fields which are present on the display unit.

The method includes proposals for operating this device.

Claims

1. A method for displaying pictograms with a device arranged in a vehicle, the device comprising a control unit and a display unit, in particular a liquid crystal display, controlled by the control unit, the method comprising the steps of

a) displaying the pictograms in symbol fields (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) of the display unit, the symbol fields (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) being arranged one next to the other to form a row of symbol fields,

b) displaying each pictogram which is to be newly displayed in a specific symbol field (2) of the row of symbol fields until a pictogram with a more recent time priority is to be displayed,

c) displacing all the pictograms which have already been displayed in the row of symbol fields by one symbol field when a new pictogram is displayed,

d) expanding the row of symbol fields (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) visible on the display unit at least one of start and end of said row in virtual fashion by invisible symbol fields (7, 8, 9, 10), for displacing pictograms onto these invisible symbol fields (7, 8, 9, 10) if a number of pictograms to be displayed exceeds a number of symbol fields (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) visible on the display unit, wherein a section of pictograms arranged in the visible symbol fields can be displayed on the display unit by a control element (13), wherein said control element (13) is able to displace the row of symbol fields.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a pictogram to be deleted is removed from its location in the row of symbol fields thereyby creating a gap in the row of symbol fields and to displayed in a symbol field (2) which is provided for each pictogram to be newly displayed, said pictograms located next to said symbol field (2) are displaced by one symbol field until the gap in said row of symbol fields produced by the removal of the pictogram which is to be deleted is closed again.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the viewing of a pictogram to be deleted can be acknowledged by activating the control element (13) causing the pictogram to be deleted to be immediately removed from the row of symbol fields.

4. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the control unit reverses a preceding displacement of the row of symbol fields, whereby the pictograms last displayed are displayed on the symbol fields (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) which are visible in the display unit, together with that pictogram whose message has been canceled, if, at the time when a message was canceled, the pictograms of the latest messages were not represented in visible symbol fields in the active area of the display unit because the control element (13) had been activated.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a pictogram which is to be deleted is displayed in the symbol field (2) which in provided in the row of symbol fields for displaying each pictogram to be newly displayed is marked so as to be distinguishable from the other pictograms.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the marking of a pictogram to be deleted comprises inverting a filling-in color and/or background color thereof.

7. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the marking of a pictogram to be deleted comprises at least one of outlining the symbol field or putting a bar through the pictogram.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control unit closes the gap in the row of symbol fields produced as a result of the deletion of a pictogram by allowing all the pictograms having an older time priority to move on by one symbol field.

9. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the control unit reverses a preceding displacement of the row of symbol fields, whereby the pictograms last displayed are displayed on the symbol fields (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) which are visible in the display unit, together with that pictogram whose message has been canceled, if, at the time when a message was canceled, the pictograms of the latest messages were not represented in visible symbol fields in the active area of the display unit, because the control element (13) had been activated.