Motor vehicle accessory comprising a data display screen for...

Communications: electrical – Land vehicle alarms or indicators – Internal alarm or indicator responsive to a condition of the...

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C340S475000, C359S630000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06545598

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an accessory for a motor vehicle comprising a housing of an informative data display screen for the driver of the vehicle.
Presently, various types of screen devices exist, which provide useful informative data for driving and are intended to be installed on board a motor vehicle. The most common devices are the navigation apparatuses which display cartographic data and/or guidance informative data as maps or symbolic instructions.
A screen may also be used in other functions for viewing informative data relative to the density of traffic on the route of the vehicle. The screen may also be used, when visibility is reduced, for viewing obstacles located in front of the vehicle, whereby these obstacles are detected by a radar. Screens also exist, which show, through a camera, the road at the rear of the vehicle and thus facilitates driving in reverse gear.
These screens for the driver are the most often positioned on the dashboard, generally so as to be visible from the side of the driver's seat, or in the middle; these screens are in locations distinct from the locations where informative data for driving the vehicle such as speed, are located. These screens thus force the driver to look in a direction different from the directions towards which he must periodically turn his eyes such as the directions of one of the rear-view mirrors (there are generally three rear-view mirrors in a vehicle: one inside and one on each side) and of the speedometer. This layout is not favorable to driving safety.
On the other hand, a navigation apparatus has already been proposed, the screen of which has the function of a rear-view mirror in addition to its display role. But this device suffers from the drawback of impairing vision towards the rear when the screen is active; moreover, it is expensive to build.
SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
The invention finds a remedy to these drawbacks.
It is characterized in that the housing of the viewing device's screen is fixed, if necessary removably, to the case of an inside or outside rear-view mirror of the vehicle.
Thus, the screen may be watched at the same time as the rear-view mirror and it does not affect vision in the rear-view mirror. So the invention does not impair driving safety, as generally the driver should periodically take a look at the inside rear-view mirror and at the outside rear-view mirrors.
The invention thus provides a simple device which may be built economically and the use of which minimally distracts the driver's attention from his driving. When the screen housing is fixed to the case of the inside rear-view mirror and when the driver watches the screen, he retains complete vision of the road in the forward direction.
When a screen housing fixed to at least one of the cases of an outside rear-view mirror is used, this use may be combined with that of another screen housing fixed to the inside rear-view mirror.
In this case, the outside screen (or screens) provides for example the same informative data as the inside screen and forms so to speak a “repeater” of the inside screen. Therefore the outside screen (or screens) strictly needs not to be permanently active.
Thus, the right hand outside screen may be activated when the vehicle turns (or starts to turn) to the right and the left hand outside screen may be activated when the vehicle turns (or starts to turn) to the left. Activation of the screen is controlled, e.g. by maneuvering the turn signal switch or by a specific control, or even automatically by the program of a navigation apparatus.
Generally, activation of the outside screen (or screens) (whether they are used in combination with an inside screen or not) is performed manually or automatically, notably by a program.
The outside screen (or screens) may also provide different informative data from those provided by the inside screen. However, it is preferable that these informative data bear a relationship with one another, for example, the informative data on the outside screen (or screens) completing the informative data on the inside screen. Thus, for a navigation apparatus, in one embodiment, the inside screen provides general cartographic or graphical informative data referring to the itinerary and to the guidance, and an outside screen (or both of them) provides an indication or a specific instruction on the change of direction to be performed; the left hand outside screen shows an enlargement of the itinerary, shown in the direction of the vehicle, depicting an instruction for turning to the left and analogously, the right hand outside screen when the vehicle should turn to the right, shows an instruction for turning to the right. The scales of the inside screen and the outside screen (or screens) may be different, for example, the scale of the inside screen enables a portion of the route to be shown, whereas the scale of the outside screen is such that only the crossroad is shown, where the driver must change direction.
The housing of the screen may be fixed to any side of the case of the rear-view mirror. In the case of an outside rear-view mirror, the interior side or body side will preferably be selected; in this case, the screen does not impair visibility at all.
It is preferable that the screen be watched from the front, i.e., perpendicularly to its surface, notably when this screen is of the liquid crystal type. In this case, its plane has a different orientation from that of the rear-view mirror. This orientation may be adjustable, for example, by means of a double joint of the screen housing to the case of the rear-view mirror. The joint may be made with a ball-and-socket joint. Fixation of the screen housing to the case of the rear-view mirror may be performed by a clamping or nipping device called a clip fastener.
Viewing controls may be positioned on the housing of the inside screen or elsewhere in the passenger compartment.
In another embodiment, at least part of the viewing controls is located on the case of the inside rear-view mirror. In one example, a control unit is provided comprising a jointed handle, sometimes called a “joystick” which through its pivoting (upwards, downwards, to the right and to the left) enables a menu to be scrolled on the screen for selecting desired information and data, the actual control being achieved by pressing on the handle. Instead of pressing on the handle, the control may also be achieved by means of an additional button for entering data. Alternatively, the control may be achieved by means of a remote control box, for example of the infrared radiation type.
In the case of a navigation apparatus, for example with a microprocessor, a CDROM or DVDROM disk reader or a PCMCIA memory reader is provided. This reader may be firmly secured to the screen or located away from the latter, for example on the dashboard, in the glove compartment or in a car radio housing.
The connection of the screen to a reader and/or to the sensors (these sensors are: a speed sensor and a compass or a gyro, a GPS or DGPS sensor, in the case of a navigation apparatus, an information receiver on the density of traffic, a radar or a camera in the other cases) may be achieved by means of wire(s) passing through the unit for fixing the case of the rear-view mirror to the vehicle.
Generally, the device may include another portion and/or remote sensors of the rear-view mirror and, in this case, if the connection to this other portion and/or to the sensors is achieved through wire(s), this wire (or these wires) preferably passes through the unit for fixing the rear-view mirror to the vehicle.
Transmission of data to the screen (navigation or general information, traffic density, radar, camera data or other information) may be achieved without any wires, for example through infrared or HF transmission. For example, the infrared or HF transmitter is located on the flat edge of the dashboard and emits upwards in the direction of the rear-view mirror case and/or the screen housing.
The rear-view mirror case and

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