Adaptive, automatically-reconfigurable, vehicle instrument display

• US 9,623,750 B1
• Filed: 08/03/2016
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Boss, Gregory J., Hamilton, II, Rick A., Cruz Huertas, Luis Carlos, Zamora Duran, Edgar Adolfo
• Primary Examiner(s): Shafi, Muhammad
• Application Number:
  US15/227,248
• Time in Patent Office: 258 Days
• Field of Search: 701 2
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/186 Displaying information according to relevancy
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/1868 according to driving situations
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 2360/21 using cameras
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/213 Virtual instruments
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/29 Instruments characterised by the way in which information is handled, e.g. showing information on plural displays or prioritising information according to driving conditions
• 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: B60K 35/81 for controlling displays

Abstract

An adaptive, automatically-reconfigurable, vehicle instrument display method and system are described that include widgets displayed within the instrument panel display of a vehicle. Each of the displayable widgets has at least one associated importance value that establishes a relative priority relationship among all of the multiple displayable widgets and affects where a widget will be displayed within the instrument panel display. Based upon changes detected by sensors within the vehicle, the importance values can be modified, with the modification potentially resulting in automatic repositioning of one or more widgets within the instrument panel display.

Claims

1. An adaptive, automatically-reconfigurable, vehicle instrument display method performed by a processing system within a vehicle having an instrument panel display that displays digital representations of gauges, using widgets, in lieu of physical gauges, the method comprising:

while the vehicle is being driven by a driver, detecting a location and view direction of the driver'"'"'s eyes, using at least one of multiple sensors located within the vehicle, at least some of the multiple sensors being associated with the vehicle instrument display;

receiving, from an other sensor of the multiple sensors, information reflecting a change in vehicle-related non-failure conditions that should be proactively indicated via the instrument panel display using a specific widget of multiple widgets, wherein each of the multiple widgets has an associated importance value that establishes a relative priority relationship among the multiple widgets that can be displayed within the instrument panel display;

based upon the receiving, modifying a particular importance value associated with the specific widget so as to cause the specific widget to be displayed in the instrument panel display;

continuously sensing, using the at least one sensor of the multiple sensors, for presence of an obstruction between the driver'"'"'s eyes and any widget displayed within the instrument panel display for greater than a specified time amount, and when an obstruction of one or more displayed widgets is sensed between the driver'"'"'s eyes and the one or more displayed widgets using the at least one sensor, using the at least one processor, examining an importance value associated with each of the one or more widgets that are obstructed relative to importance values associated with all other widgets present in the instrument panel display; and

based upon the importance values, automatically rearranging the one or more widgets in the instrument panel display using the at least one processor such that whichever widgets then-within the instrument panel display and are most important are located in unobstructed locations.

2. The adaptive, automatically-reconfigurable, vehicle instrument display method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, using the at least one processor, that at least one unobstructed location for an important widget is in a secondary display.

3. The adaptive, automatically-reconfigurable, vehicle instrument display method of claim 1, wherein in connection with the automatically rearranging, the method further comprises one of:

(i) moving,

(ii) modifying, or

(iii) moving and modifying,

at least one unobstructed widget in order to make room in an unobstructed part of the instrument panel display.

4. The adaptive, automatically-reconfigurable, vehicle instrument display method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, using the at least one sensor, that the previously sensed obstruction is no longer present; and

automatically reverting all widgets to their positions and sizes, in the instrument panel display, that immediately preceded the sensing of the obstruction.

5. The adaptive, automatically-reconfigurable, vehicle instrument display method of claim 1, wherein the automatically rearranging further comprises:

removing at least one lower importance widget from the instrument panel display.

6. An adaptive, automatically-reconfigurable, vehicle instrument display system located within a vehicle, the system comprising:

at least one processor within the vehicle;

an instrument panel display within the vehicle and coupled to the at least one processor, the instrument panel display interoperating with the at least one processor to display widgets, of multiple displayable widgets that can be displayed within the instrument panel display as digital representations of gauges within the instrument panel display, each of the displayable widgets having at least one associated importance value that establishes a relative priority relationship among all of the multiple displayable widgets;

multiple sensors within the vehicle, wherein some of the multiple sensors are positioned to detect vehicle-related non-failure conditions, others of the multiple sensors are positioned within a steering wheel of the vehicle so as to detect a change in driver grip, and additional sensors of the multiple sensors being located about a periphery of the instrument panel display and oriented in a direction towards a driver of the vehicle, the additional sensors interoperating with the at least one processor to detect when any obstruction is interposed between at least one widget displayed in the instrument panel display and the driver'"'"'s eyes; and

based upon a change in an importance value associated with an individual widget, the at least one processor will compare the changed importance value relative to each importance value for each widget present within the instrument panel display and will modify at least one displayed widget location if the changed importance value indicates greater importance of the individual widget relative to one or more other widgets present within the instrument panel display.

7. The adaptive, automatically-reconfigurable, vehicle instrument display system of claim 6, wherein at least one of the multiple sensors oriented in the direction towards the driver comprises a camera.

8. The adaptive, automatically-reconfigurable, vehicle instrument display system of claim 6, wherein at least one of the multiple sensors oriented in the direction towards the driver comprises an infrared sensor.

9. The adaptive, automatically-reconfigurable, vehicle instrument display system of claim 6 further comprising:

a secondary display, accessible to the at least one processor, that can receive one or more widgets for display thereon in lieu of display within the instrument panel display.

10. The adaptive, automatically-reconfigurable, vehicle instrument display system of claim 6 further comprising:

non-volatile storage, accessible to the at least one processor, having storage locations defined hold, for each of the multiple displayable widgets, their associated importance values.