Patent ID: 9469195
Filing Date: 2016-10-18
CPC Classification: B60K

Claim Text:
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: detecting, using at least one sensor associated with the vehicle instrument display, a location and view direction of a driver's eyes; continuously sensing, using the at least one sensor, 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, wherein each of the widgets has an associated importance value that establishes a relative priority relationship among widgets that can be displayed within the instrument panel display; when an obstruction is sensed, using the at least one sensor, between the driver's eyes and a widget displayed within the instrument panel display, then, based upon a result of the sensing, using the at least one processor, examining an importance value associated with the widget relative to importance values associated with other widgets present in the instrument panel display; and if the importance value associated with the widget indicates that the widget is more important than at least one unobstructed widget displayed within the instrument panel display, using the at least one processor, automatically moving the widget in the instrument panel display to a new unobstructed location.