Display assemblies provide information to a viewer through various techniques. In certain traditional implementations, the display assemblies were primarily mechanical, and provided information via mechanical gauges, pointers, and the like.
A common implementation of display assemblies are vehicle instrument clusters. The digital assemblies interact with a central processor, for example an electronic control unit (ECU), receive information, and provide an indication based on the received information. The received information may be related to information about the operation of the vehicle, for example, the speed, fuel levels, revolutions-per-minute (RPM), or the like.
In recent times, mechanical implementations of the displays have been supplemented or replaced by digital displays. In the field of vehicle instrument clusters, digital displays may be implemented along with non-digital layers, such as appliques, plastic cases, and the like. The digital displays may be implemented with a variety of electronic techniques, such as thin-film transitors (TFT), liquid crystal displays (LCD), and organic light emitter displays (OLED), and the like.
These digital displays may be implemented with a variety of apertures and openings. An applique may be placed over the digital display, fashioned with a variety of openings, with the openings capable of showing digital information from a single or plurality of digital displays placed behind the applique.
Various implementers have attempted to create an environment which appears seamless. The seamless environment attempts to minimize the appearance of multiple layers (including an applique, a variety of films, and the like), thus creating a continuous look.
On the contrary, the seamless environment or look appears to a viewer as if the viewer is viewing one continuous surface. Thus, the discontinuous look of implementing multiple layers is obviated or significantly lessened.
Film layer 120 is provided to augment the seamless look of the instrument cluster 100. One implementation of the film is a Bayer LM296 film with a neutral density transmission factor of 25%. However, even with the use of the Bayer LM296 film (or other similar concepts), the technique is limited in that various effects are still present. For example, in certain lighting conditions, the instrument cluster may still appear not seamless. Another known effect, “sparkle” may become apparent with the use of anti-glare films. Sparkle is caused by the antiglare “rough” surface structure on the top of film layer 120. In conventional implementations, that magnitude or level of the antiglare surface was high, thereby increasing the amount of light reflected back to the eye. However, this did not work as desired, because the feature size of the antiglare surface led to sparkles on the order of a pixel pitch dimension. The above implementation may require additional films or coating to address these issues.
The following description relates to a seamless instrument cluster. Exemplary embodiments may also be directed to the seamless instrument cluster itself, or methods of manufacturing the seamless instrument cluster.
An instrument cluster is provided herein. The instrument cluster may include a display configured to project light in response to information provided via a digital display renderer; a first antireflective (AR) layer or surface applied onto a surface of the display; an applique layer with an aperture to allow the projected light to a viewer of the instrument cluster; and a second AR film applied to a surface of the applique layer that faces the display.
Another instrument cluster is provided herein. The instrument cluster includes a display configured to project light in response to information provided via a digital display renderer; a fade pattern applied onto a back surface of an applique layer; the applique layer with an aperture to allow the projected light to a viewer of the instrument cluster; and an AR layer or surface applied to a surface of the applique layer that faces the display.
Additional features of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. Other features and aspects will be apparent from the following detailed description, the drawings, and the claims.
The detailed description refers to the following drawings, in which like numerals refer to like items, and in which:
The invention is described more fully hereinafter with references to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these exemplary embodiments are provided so that this disclosure is thorough, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. It will be understood that for the purposes of this disclosure, “at least one of each” will be interpreted to mean any combination the enumerated elements following the respective language, including combination of multiples of the enumerated elements. For example, “at least one of X, Y, and Z” will be construed to mean X only, Y only, Z only, or any combination of two or more items X, Y, and Z (e.g. XYZ, XZ, YZ, X). Throughout the drawings and the detailed description, unless otherwise described, the same drawing reference numerals are understood to refer to the same elements, features, and structures. The relative size and depiction of these elements may be exaggerated for clarity, illustration, and convenience.
As explained in the Background section, various instrument cluster implementations incorporate digital displays integrated with appliques and other coverings. However, in these implementations, various discontinuities become apparent. So the viewer of the instrument cluster is very apparent of the fact that multiple layers (a lighting layer, an applique layer, and others) are implemented.
Various attempts, such as those described in
The proposed solution discussed with a variety of embodiments below improve upon the embodiment discussed above by:
1) Improving the black panel effect, i.e. a surface looking black to a viewer in both an on/off state of the display;
2) Reducing overall reflection;
3) Employing a one film solution (rather than implementing multiple films);
4) Improving optical clarity while reducing sparkle; and
5) Implementing air gaps, which obviate the need for optical bonding.
Disclosed herein is an instrument cluster with a seamless presentation, and a method for implementing a seamless instrument cluster. The aspects disclosed herein allow for a seamless presentation, while simplifying implementation and achieving all the advantages enumerated above.
On the bottom, or back of the instrument cluster 200, a digital display 210 is provided. The digital display 210 may be any sort of digital display capable of rendering and transferring information via an instrument cluster 200.
The digital display 210 has a first surface 211 facing the back of the instrument cluster 200. The first surface 211 abuts an area where the instrument cluster 200 is to be installed or implemented. The digital display also includes a second surface 212. The second surface 212 may have an antireflection (AR) film 220. The AR film 220 is of a smooth-type with no antiglare (AG) structure. One such example of a smooth-type that may be implemented with the instrument cluster 200 is a Motheye film. In an example not shown, the AR film 220 may be omitted. This becomes possible because the display 210 provided is of a smooth-type. Thus, employing the aspects disclosed herein, the seamless effect is achieved without providing the AR film 220.
On top of the AR film 220, an air gap 230 is provided. The air gap 230, as shown in
On the other side of the air gap 230, an AR film 240 is provided on a first surface 251 on an applique layer 250. The applique layer 250 includes a first surface 251 facing the direction of the display 210, and a second surface 252 facing the viewer. The second surface 252 refers to the front side of the ink being viewed.
The applique layer 250 includes a variety of features. On both ends of the applique layer 250 is a first solid inked end 253 and a second solid inked end 254. Also included are a first fade pattern 255 and a second fade pattern 256. In between the fade patterns 255 and 256, is an opening (aperture) 257. The importance of the fade patterns will be described in greater detail below. The aperture 257 may be filled with an optical adhesive (or some sort of optical adhesive system).
The applique layer 250 may be additionally provided with one, some, or all of the following (the applique layer 250 is always a separate layer as any of the enumerated layers/filters/films listed below):
1) a neutral density (ND) filter 260 (shown in
2) a combination of polarization films and other optically bonded ND filter; and
3) a polarization film.
On the opposite surface of the ND filter 260 (i.e. the viewer side), a antiglare (AG) surface 270 is provided. The AG surface 270 raises the ambient reflected level to a level where it reduces the contrast ratio difference between the opening 257 and the various black printed areas (inked ends 253, 254 and fade patterns 255, 256).
The lowest sinusoidal spatial frequency works best due to the contrast sensitivity characteristics per the Contrast Sensitivity Function (CSF) of the human eye; however, the tradeoff is the amount of intrusion into the active area of the display. The sinusoidal fade pattern may be developed by several means. The two tone pattern shown in
The graph 700 explains that spatial frequencies below 6 cycles per degree have a lower contrast sensitivity (i.e., are harder to see contrasts). Thus, the fade patterns (as will be explained in further detail below), allow for these lower contrast sensitivities to be achieved.
In contrast, in
In operation 1010, a base neutral density (ND) filter is provided. The base ND filter should have the antiglare film already applied on the front side. The resultant structure is shown in
In operation 1020, if the ND filter is a clear base, the structure shown in
In operation 1040, an optical adhesive may be affixed to the laminated smooth AR film 240. As explained above, the aperture 257 may be filled with the optical adhesive (liquid or pressure sensitive type). The smooth AR film 240 may be a Motheye film, for at least the reasons explained above. In operation 1050, a smooth AR film 240 is laminated over the display aperture 257, with the resultant structure in
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.