Multi optical-route head up display (HUD)

• US 9,164,283 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2011
• Issued: 10/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Automotive Research & Testing Center
• Original Assignee: Automotive Research & Testing Center
• Inventors: Chiang, Chih-Bin, Ho, Kevin, Hsu, Jih-Tao
• Primary Examiner(s): Chauhan, Ulka
• Assistant Examiner(s): Flora, Nurun N
• Application Number:
  US13/283,875
• Publication Number:
  US 20130083039A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,453 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0141 characterised by the informative content of the display
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/015 involving arrangement aiming to get less bulky devices
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/01 Head-up displays
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0172 characterised by optical features

Abstract

A multi optical-route Head Up Display (HUD), comprising: at least an image display unit, to generate at least two input images, and project them respectively to a plurality of relay lenses, which adjusts reflection angle of said input signals and then transmits them to a virtual image generation unit, said virtual image generation unit produces a plurality of virtual images, and transmits them to a plurality of transmission mirrors, which reflects said virtual images to form a large area virtual image. Based on technical contents mentioned above, size of optical elements of lens and mirrors can be reduced drastically, so that said multi optical-route HUD can be miniaturized, to achieve image display range of large area, thus the moving vehicle information frame required completely overlaps outside view, as such effectively solving defects of a conventional single optical-route image display device capable of only providing small area image display.

Claims

1. A multi optical-route Head Up Display (HUD), comprising:

at least an image display unit, to generate at least two distinct input images;

a plurality of separately addressable relay lenses, to independently adjust a respective refraction angle of one of said input images, and receive and transmit said input images;

at least a virtual image generation unit, and said input images outputted from said addressable relay lenses pass along intersecting optical routes to converge toward said virtual image generation unit, so that said virtual image generation unit receives said input images and produces a plurality of virtual images; and

a plurality of transmission mirrors, to receive said virtual images and reflect them into a converging large area virtual image for concurrent viewing by two eyes of a user, wherein said transmission mirror is a planar plate of high reflection optical thin film, with its transmission rate between 70% and 75%, and its reflection rate between 25% and 30%, and said transmission mirrors are fixed on a rotatable mechanism, and said rotatable mechanism is disposed on a rotation actuation mechanism, and said rotatable mechanism is rotated around a horizontal axis in a clockwise or a counterclockwise direction, and said rotation actuation mechanism is rotated around a vertical axis in a clockwise or a counterclockwise direction, such that a display angle of said transmission mirrors is selectively adjusted based on height and seating gesture of said user.

2. The multi optical-route Head Up Display (HUD) as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of reflection mirrors, to reflect and partition an image into said input images, and reflect said input images to said relay lenses;

said reflection mirrors are disposed between said image display unit and said relay lenses.

3. The multi optical-route Head Up Display (HUD) as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a vision converged unit, having a vision converged range, such that the transmission mirror reflects a large area virtual image into said vision converged range.

4. The multi optical-route Head Up Display (HUD) as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

at least an image fetching unit and at least a processing unit, said processing unit is connected electrically to said image fetching unit and said image display unit, said image fetching unit fetches an external signal, and said processing unit receives said external signal from said image fetching unit and processes said external signal and a moving vehicle signal to form an image signal, and then transmits it to said image display unit, so that said image display unit produces said input image.

5. The multi optical-route Head Up Display (HUD) as claimed in claim 4, wherein said external signal is one of following:

lane marking, horizontal line, and obstacle contour; and

said moving vehicle signal is one of following;

vehicle operation temperature, engine rotation speed, vehicle driving speed, guidance information, tire pressure, gear shift reminder, turning-around &

back-up reminder, obstacle warning, flying attitude, flying speed, flying direction, vertical speed variations, vehicle inclination angle, wind direction, and vehicle moving-forward or slow-down.

6. The multi optical-route Head Up Display (HUD) as claimed in claim 1, wherein number of said transmission mirrors and said relay lenses is same as that of said input images.

7. The multi optical-route Head Up Display (HUD) as claimed in claim 2, wherein number of said transmission mirrors, said relay lenses, and said reflection mirrors is same as that of said input images.

8. The multi optical-route Head Up Display (HUD) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said image display unit is a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a digital signal processor (DSP) projector.

9. The multi optical-route Head Up Display (HUD) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said virtual image generation unit is a concave lens or a convex lens.