The present invention relates generally to panels on vehicle sun visors, and particularly to deliver a message on a panel on a vehicle sun visor.
Display signs used for advertising or for displaying direction or other information to motorists have an important feature in common. They should be eye-catching and their information should be easy to absorb. This is especially true of signs to be located on the highway where the motorist may be moving fast and may need to absorb the information quickly.
Such display signs have traditionally used fluorescent or incandescent lamps which are expensive in electricity and may need frequent maintenance and repair. Each lamp usually forms an appreciable part of any letter in a display of information, and so, if any one lamp becomes non-functional it has an appreciable effect on decipherability and as more lamps become non-functional it may be considerably more difficult to decipher the letter. on the job site itself. Both solutions to the problem are unsatisfactory.
Presently, car share programs allow the user to know the driver name and vehicle type with license plate when signing up for a ride. The user is then stretching their neck to determine if the make color of the vehicle is correct and then to try to determine the license plate number. It is time consuming, people miss their rides and are charged a fee for not making it to their ride, and can be a safety hazard if the user gets in the wrong car or if the user goes into the street to read the license plate.
Disclosed is an apparatus and method for an illuminated sun visor, which may also be referred to herein as a “ride share visor sign.” Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. All terms in the plural shall also be taken as singular and vice-versa. Further, any reference to he shall also be applicable to she and vice-versa.
Referring now to
The sun-visor 110 may cover the complete width of the window slight above eye level of a driver or passenger or may have more than one sun visor 110 such that each of the passenger and the driver can manipulate the sun visor 110 separately. As shown the sun visor 110 has a driver sun visor 112 and a passenger sun visor 114 The sun-visor 110 may be movable at the hinge 120 in that the sun visor 110 may be able to be disconnected at one end and moved to be block the sun from a side window, not shown.
The windshield 100 typically has a rear-view mirror 130. The rear-view mirror 130 is typically in the middle or center portion of the windshield 100. The rear-view mirror 130 is adjustable to allow the driver to see thru the back window and observe any activity behind the vehicle.
The passenger sun visor 114 is connected to a display panel 140. The display panel 140 is coupled to the passenger sun visor 114 by clips 116, the clips 116 being closer to the passenger being rotatable left and right such that the display panel 140 may be moved to allow other views of the display panel 140. The clips 116 may be any type of clips or connectors, such as tension clips. The display panel 140 is adjustable to be moved forward towards a passenger window. The display panel 140 may have one or more lamps or other type of visible display. The panel 140 may be any panel capable of displaying information obtained from another source. The panel 140 may display messages, numbers, locations, etc. The display panel 140 illuminates, in the
The display panel 140 has a connecting cable 150. The connecting cable 150 may be a USB cable, a coax cable, a LAN cable, etc. The connecting cable 150 may be useful in connecting a computing device, not shown, to the panel 140.
Moving now to
The message displayed in this example are a driver 230 and a company 240. The information displayed on the panel 140 may include any information a driver or a company desires to show, this could include advertisements, availability of the vehicle for hire, next location the vehicle will stop at, etc.
Referring now to
The message displayed in this example is a customer 320 and a company 330. The information displayed on the panel 140 may include any information a driver or a company desires to show, this could include advertisements, availability of the vehicle for hire, next location the vehicle will stop at, etc.
Now referring to
The back portion 410 of the panel 140 also has a energy connector 430. The energy connector 430 is for powering the panel 140. The energy connector may be any suitable connector for a cigarette lighter in the vehicle, an external energy source, etc.
The back portion 410 of the panel 140 further has a side portion 440. The side portion 440 has a connector 450 for a source. The source can be any source for input into the panel 140 and may include a computing device, or any other device capable of sending a message to have displayed on the panel 140. The connector 450 may be a USB connector, a thunderbolt connector, a fire connector, etc.
When a message is desired to be illuminated on a panel 140. The panel receives a signals as determined by a computing device. The panel then directs the lighting of its display to simulate that which was sent by the computing device. The panel is then turned to make it easier to those outside of the vehicle to read the message.
The features described with respect to one embodiment may be applied to other embodiments or combined with or interchanged with the features of other embodiments, as appropriate, without departing from the scope of the present invention.
Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.