This application claims priority to and the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2018-0101614 filed on Aug. 28, 2018, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to a display device for an autonomous vehicle, and more particularly, to a display device for an autonomous vehicle that can provide a screen to passengers within the vehicle seated to face each other by changing a position of a display in the autonomous vehicle.
Nowadays, when a driver sets only a destination without manipulation of a vehicle, an autonomous vehicle that runs itself has been in the spotlight as a next generation vehicle. Therefore, many companies from traditional automakers to IT companies are actively developing autonomous vehicles and various technologies that may be applied thereto.
In a general vehicle, all seats including a driver's seat are disposed toward the front of the vehicle, and when a display is installed in such a vehicle, the display is usually installed at the front of the vehicle for viewing of all passengers or just behind the driver's seat for viewing of passengers, except for the driver. However, because the autonomous vehicle does not require a driver's seat for manipulating the vehicle, a front seat may be designed to face a back seat toward the rear of the vehicle so that passengers may have a conversation with each other or have a meeting when the autonomous vehicle runs unlike a general seat structure of a vehicle.
However, according to a seat disposition of such an autonomous vehicle, when a display is disposed in the same manner as the conventional method, some passengers may suffer difficulty in viewing a screen, and a shape or movement of the other passengers enters at the sight of passengers facing the screen and thus passengers may be disturbed in immersing in the screen and may feel psychological discomfort.
Accordingly, it is necessary to improve a structure of a display device in order to enable to comfortably view a screen in all seats of an autonomous vehicle.
(Patent Document 0001) Korea Patent Registration No. 10-1457225 (Oct. 27, 2014)
The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art and provides a display device capable of comfortably viewing a screen in all seats and providing a sufficient viewing angle in an autonomous vehicle.
The present invention further provides a display device capable of efficiently using an internal space of a vehicle without obstructing activity of passengers when a display is not used.
In an aspect, a display device for an autonomous vehicle is provided. The display device includes a display unit mounted in a ceiling of the vehicle and including at least one display; and a position adjustment unit configured to move a position of at least one display of the display unit. Here, at least one display of the display unit is moved by the position adjustment unit between a first position in which a screen is disposed toward a ceiling or floor of the vehicle and a second position in which a screen is disposed toward each of seats facing each other.
At least one display of the display unit may be disposed such that the screen faces the front and the rear of the vehicle at the second position.
The position adjustment unit may include a guide rail, one end of at least one display of the display unit may be fixedly connected to the guide rail, and when one end of at least one display of the display unit fixedly connected to the guide rail moves along the guide rail, at least one display of the display unit may move between the first position and the second position.
The display unit may include two displays, and the two displays may be connected to each other through a hinge. Alternatively, the display unit may include four displays, and any two adjacent displays of the four displays may be connected to each other through a hinge.
The display unit may include two displays, the two displays may be connected to each other through a hinge, and the two displays may move between the first position and the second position with rotation of the two displays about the hinge.
The display unit may include two displays, and the two displays may be detachably coupled to each other.
At least one display of the display unit for the autonomous vehicle may be formed in a flexible display. Further, at least one display of the display unit may be formed in a transparent display that can adjust transmittance of light.
Different screens may be provided to passengers positioned side by side toward one display of the display unit.
The present invention will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown.
In order to clearly describe the present invention, the description of parts not related to the present invention is omitted, and the same reference numerals are used for the same components throughout the specification.
In this specification, the connection of one element and another element is used in the sense of including not only that they are directly connected but also connected to each other through another element. Further, in the drawings, a size, thickness, and position of each element are randomly represented for better understanding and ease of description, and the present invention is not limited thereto.
In other words, specific shapes, structures, and characteristics described in the specification may be implemented by changing from an embodiment to another embodiment without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, and it should be understood that positions or dispositions of individual components may be changed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
Accordingly, the following detailed description is not being carried out as a limiting meaning, and the scope of the invention should be taken to encompass a range of claims and a full range equivalent thereto.
Referring to
According to the first embodiment of the present invention, the display unit 110 is mounted in a central portion of a vehicle ceiling, specifically, in a middle portion of seats facing each other in the vehicle. The display unit 110 may be mounted in a form exposed to a vehicle ceiling or may be provided in a separate space for housing a display in a vehicle ceiling to be mounted in a form that houses the display in a corresponding space.
The display unit 110 according to the present embodiment includes at least one display 111. In the present embodiment, the display unit 110 includes two displays 111a and 111b, and the two displays 111a and 111b each may be provided in different directions, for example, one may provide a screen toward the front of the vehicle and the other one may provide a screen toward the rear of the vehicle. Hereinafter, a display disposed toward the front of the vehicle is referred to as a first display 111a, and a display disposed toward the rear of the vehicle is referred to as a second display 111b.
According to the present embodiment, the first display 111a and the second display 111b may be connected through a hinge 115. The hinge 115 performs a function of guiding the first display 111a and the second display 111b to move toward a lower portion of the vehicle under the control of the position adjustment unit 120 to be described later. Further, the first display 111a and the second display 111b include guide bars 113a and 113b, respectively installed at the opposite end by the hinge 115 and are connected to a position adjustment unit 120 to be described later.
The position adjustment unit 120 of the display device 100 for an autonomous vehicle according to the first embodiment of the present invention performs a function of controlling a position of the display unit 110. Specifically, the position adjustment unit 120 may control the display unit 110 to move between a position (hereinafter, referred to as a first position) in which the first display 111a and the second display 111b are disposed toward a lower portion of the vehicle and a position (hereinafter, referred to as a second position) in which the first display 111a and the second display 111b are disposed toward the front and rear, respectively of the vehicle.
For this reason, the position adjustment unit 120 may include a guide rail 121 and a driving motor 122. According to the present embodiment, the guide rail 121 includes a belt, and the belt may move in one direction by driving the drive motor 122. Further, each of the guide bars 113a and 113b of the first display 111a and the second display 111b is fixedly connected to belts of the guide rails 121 to move along the guide rail by a movement of the belt.
According to the present embodiment, the guide bar 113a of the first display 111a and the guide bar 113b of the second display 111b are mounted in different surfaces of the belt. For example, as shown, the guide bar 113a of the first display 111a may be installed in a lower surface of the belt, and the guide bar 113b of the second display 111b may be installed in an upper surface of the belt.
Accordingly, when the belt moves clockwise by the drive motor 122, the guide bar 113a of the first display 111a moves to the right and the guide bar 113b of the second display 111b moves to the right and thus two displays 111a and 111b move downward, and in contrast, when the belt moves counterclockwise by the drive motor 122, the guide bar 113a of the first display 111a moves to the right, and the guide bar 113b of the second display 111b moves to the left and thus the two displays 111a and 111b move upward.
In the present embodiment, it is illustrated that the guide rail 121 includes one belt and that the drive motor 122 drives one belt to collectively control a movement of the two guide bars 113a and 113b, but the guide rail includes two belts and the guide bar is connected to each of the two belts and thus a movement of the guide bar may be individually controlled. Further, a belt in the present embodiment may be replaced with another transport means, for example, a chain.
Referring to
When the display unit 110 is used, the guide bars 113a and 113b of the displays 111a and 111b move to the center along the guide rails 121 as described above, and the first display 111a and the second display 111b move downward about the hinge 115 to be positioned at the second position (see
Accordingly, the first display 111a and the second display 111b provide screens in forward and backward directions, respectively of the vehicle. In this case, the first display 111a and the second display 111b block the sight of passengers facing each other, thereby preventing a disturbance of immersion by a movement of other passengers and psychological discomfort according to the disturbance.
According to the first embodiment of the present invention, in order to enable the passenger to view a screen in a more comfortable state, an angle formed by the first display 111a and the second display 111b may be adjusted in consideration of the passenger's posture and eye level.
For example, referring to
According to the first embodiment of the present invention, when it is necessary to dispose a display toward the front and rear of the vehicle, different images may be provided to facing passengers. Further, according to the present embodiment, different images may be provided to passengers positioned side by side toward one display.
Referring to
According to the first embodiment of the present invention, the display device for an autonomous vehicle may be transformed into a form opened in the ceiling.
In the foregoing embodiment, it is described that the display unit 110 includes two displays 111a and 111b, but the display unit may have more displays.
The display device 100′ for an autonomous vehicle according to this modified example may provide a display in the same manner as the display device 100 in the above-described embodiment, and by controlling the number of displays moving downward, a size of the screen provided toward the front and rear of the vehicle may be adjusted. For example, as shown in
In this modified example, it is described that the display unit 110′ includes four displays 111a′, 111b′, 111c′, and 111d′, but the number of displays is not limited thereto and in order to variously adjust a size of the screen, more displays may be included.
Hereinafter, other embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. When describing other embodiments of the present invention, a description of the same configuration as that of the first embodiment of the present invention will be omitted.
In the second embodiment of the present invention, the display unit 210 includes a first display 211a and a second display 211b, but the second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that in a state in which the display unit 210 is not used, the first display 211a and the second display 211b are mounted such that a screen faces the vehicle ceiling.
In the present embodiment, through the position adjustment unit 220, a position of the display unit 210 is controlled between a first position in which the display unit 210 is not used and a second position in which the display unit 210 is used. However, in the present embodiment, a hinge 213 connecting the first display 211a and the second display 211b is fixed to a ceiling, and the position adjustment unit 220 moves the display unit 210 with a method of rotating the first display unit 211a and the second display unit 211b about the hinge 213.
A process of driving the display device 200 for an autonomous vehicle according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described in detailed. As shown in
Thereafter, in order to use the display unit 210, when a movement command of the displays 211a and 211b is given through the position adjustment unit 220, as shown in
Finally, as shown in
When use of the display unit 210 is complete, by performing the above process in reverse order, the display unit 210 may move again to the first position.
According to a third embodiment of the present invention, the display 300 includes a flexible display, and a shape thereof may be flexibly transformed by an external force. Further, in the present embodiment, the display unit 310 may be formed with a single display unlike the above-described embodiments.
According to the present embodiment, the position adjustment unit 320 may include a guide (not shown) and a driver (not shown), as in the first embodiment of the present invention, and in a state in which both ends of the flexible display are fixed by the guide, when the guide is driven by the driver, the flexible display may move.
In this case, in order to use the display unit 310, when the guide is driven through the position adjustment unit 220, both ends of the flexible display move to a central portion (arrow direction) along the guide, and a central portion of the flexible display is pushed downward, as shown in
When the flexible display completes a movement and finally moves to the second position, the screen may be provided in forward and backward directions of the vehicle. Here, a flexible display screen is divided into two, and each image may be provided toward the front and rear.
In the present embodiment, by controlling a movement level of the flexible display through the position adjustment unit 320, a size of the screen provided to the passenger may be adjusted.
In the above-described embodiments, it is described that the ceiling is opened with a movement of the display unit, but the display unit may be formed with a transparent display and thus external light may enter into the display unit by penetrating the display unit. In this case, by controlling transmittance of the display by providing a separate penetration adjustment unit, an amount of penetrated light may be controlled. In this way, when the display unit is formed with a transparent display, by controlling a background screen of the display and a color and brightness of lighting, the interior of the vehicle may be implemented in various forms.
In the above-described embodiments, each screen is provided in the front of passengers facing each other in the autonomous vehicle, but a screen may be provided at the side of passengers.
As shown in
For this reason, the position adjustment unit 420 includes a fixing portion 421 fixedly mounted at one corner of the ceiling of the vehicle and a connection portion 422 having one end connected to the fixing portion 421 and the other end connected to the display unit 410.
A process of moving the display unit 410 according to the present embodiment will be described in detail. Before the display unit 410 is used, the display unit 410 is disposed at a position in which a display screen comes in close contact with the ceiling while facing the bottom (see
Thereafter, as shown in
In the embodiment of
In this way, the number of the fixing portions and the connecting portions of the position adjustment unit for moving the display unit between the ceiling and the side surface of the vehicle may be variously changed, and other known connecting members may be used to constitute the position adjustment unit.
Specifically,
In the present embodiment, because the display unit 510 is formed with the flexible display, the display unit 510 may move with bent according to a corner shape even in a corner segment formed in a path that moves the display unit 510 from the first position to the second position.
As shown in
In the present embodiment, in order to solve such a problem, when a display screen is provided at the side of the vehicle, a position of a seat positioned relatively far away from the screen may be moved to the center of the vehicle (see
Referring to
An installing process of the pop-up table 600 will be described in detail. When the pop-up table 600 is not used, the pop-up table 600 is disposed at the bottom of the vehicle (see
When the pop-up table 600 is not used, by reversely performing the above-described installation process, the pop-up table 600 may be disposed at the floor.
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, a configuration applied to any one embodiment may be applied to another embodiment, and the configuration may be partially modified and applied.
Accordingly, the spirit of the present invention should not be limited to the foregoing embodiments, and claims to be described later and all contents equally or equivalently modified to the claims belong to a range of the scope of the present invention.
In a display device for an autonomous vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention, while a display is disposed toward a ceiling or a floor of the vehicle, by disposing the display to face each of seats facing each other by a position adjustment unit upon using the display, a screen can be comfortably viewed at all seats and a sufficient viewing angle can be provided.
Further, when the display is not used, by disposing the display to face a ceiling or a floor of the vehicle, an internal space of the vehicle can be efficiently used without obstructing activity of the passenger.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2018-0101614 | Aug 2018 | KR | national |