Motorcycle visual display apparatus

Abstract: Motorcycle visual display apparatus (10) comprising signal processing apparatus (28) having an input (26) associated with the motorcycle instruments (14,16,18,20,22,30), a visual display surface (40) positioned in the motorcycle rider's instantaneous field of view (50) and a visual display assembly (42) for receiving output data from the signal processing apparatus (28) and for projecting the data onto the visual display surface (40).

Description: The present invention relates to motorcycle data display apparatus. Motorcycle display panels, which display to a rider real time driving information such as velocity and the RPM of the motor, are conventionally not located in the instantaneous field of view of the rider and may, therefore, constitute a hazard to the rider and to other road users in his vicinity. The hazard emanates from the rider having to move his line of sight from the road, to the display panel and back again to the road in order to look at the display panel. This movement not only constitutes a distraction, but it also causes the rider's eyes to have to refocus from a substantially infinite conjugate ratio, to a short distance focus and back to the infinite conjugate ratio. In the relatively short time that the refocussing may take, a road accident can occur. Furthermore, in bad weather conditions, such as heavy rain, snow and fog, the display panel may be very difficult, if not impossible, to read. JP-A-60-88925 relates to reflecting an image from a special translucent plate on a car's windscreen and into the driver's eyes. This arrangement prevents a double image being formed by the windscreen itself. JP-A-61-12450 discloses reflecting a motorcycle meter in part of the windshield so as to be more easily viewed by the motorcyclist. EP-A-240374 discloses the use of a holographic display element that is positioned inside a driver's helmet between the visor and the driver's eyes. US-A-4081209 discloses a helmet with a data display source and a visor which includes a curved semi-reflective surface which reflects data into the user's eye so that the data appears to be at infinity. EP-A-216692 discloses a vehicle windscreen which incorporates a holographic layer which uses holographic reflection, instead of regular reflection, to reflect data into the driver's eyes. According to the present invention, there is provided motorcycle visual display apparatus for use with a motorcycle having instruments indicating operating parameters such as speed and motor RPM, comprising: signal processing means having an input associable with the motorcycle instruments; a motorcycle rider's crash helmet having a transparent visor with a curved portion; a visual display surface positioned on said curved portion of said transparent visor and positionable in the motorcycle rider's instantaneous field of view, said visual display surface being provided by a regularly reflective coating on the inward facing surface of said curved portion; and visual display means having a display unit for receiving output data from said signal processing means and for projecting said data onto said visual display surface to be regularly reflected by said regularly reflective coating towards the eyes of the motorcycle rider so that said data is perceived by the motorcycle rider as being at infinity; wherein said regularly reflective coating is a dichroic type coating. The present invention provides a visual display to the rider in his instantaneous field of view so as to provide information to him without necessitating his taking his eyes off the road or his eyes having to refocus to read the information displayed by the apparatus. Furthermore, by using a dichroic coating on the visor of the crash helmet, the crash helmet is not made too heavy and the cost of manufacture may be low enough to make it a realistic purchase for a motorcycle user. The invention will now be described by way of non-limiting embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustration of motorcycle data display apparatus, constructed and operative in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a schematic illustration of a visual display assembly and surface forming part of the apparatus of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a block diagram illustration of electronic circuitry useful in data processing apparatus forming part of the apparatus of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is an illustration of an interface transducer element useful in the apparatus of Fig. 1; Fig. 5 is a schematic illustration of a motorcycle rider's instantaneous field of view including motorcycle data as displayed by visual display apparatus shown in Fig. 1; and Fig. 6 is a block diagram illustration of alternative electronic circuitry useful in data processing apparatus forming part of the apparatus of Fig. 1. Reference is made to Fig. 1 which shows, in block diagram form, motorcycle data display apparatus, referenced generally 10, constructed and operative in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention. Apparatus 10 interfaces with a motorcycle 12 via electrical connections passing input signals from an oil indicator 14, a high beam indicator 16 and a fuel indicator 18. Data from velocity and RPM gauges, respectively referenced 20 and 22, is generated via electro-opto-mechanical transducers 26, which transmit signals to a data processing unit (DPU) 28. Apparatus 10 is typically powered by the motorcycle battery, shown at 30, through unit 28. DPU 28 is operative to process the input signals and provides an output to a display assembly 32 in the form of data signals as described below with reference to Figs. 2 and 3. Display assembly 32 displays the data to a rider in his instantaneous field of view and in infinite conjugate ratio to his eye. Assembly 32 is preferably connected to DPU 28 via an electrical cable 54 in which there may be provided a quick release connector 56. Reference is now made to Fig. 2 which shows, in schematic fashion, display assembly 32 in a preferred configuration. The assembly 32 comprises a portion of a visor 34 of a crash helmet. Visor 34 is formed of a light transmissive, relatively stiff material, such as a polycarbonate and, at curved display areas 36 and 38, has predetermined geometrical configurations. Areas 36 and 38 are respectively located in the optically active fields of the right and left eyes of the rider. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention display areas 36 and 38 each describe a portion of a sphere, although any other suitable geometric configuration, such as parabolic, may also be used. Inward-facing surfaces 40 of areas 36 and 38 have a partially light transmissive coating of a dichroic type coating such as manufactured by Denton Vacuum, of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Relating now particularly to one side of the shown apparatus, according to a preferred embodiment, a horizontal plane in which lies the biggest circle of the sphere partially defined by area 36 is arranged such that the rider's line of sight, when looking straight ahead, lies therein. A display unit 42 also preferably lies in this plane. According to the shown view, the center of the sphere, shown at 44, is, according to the shown embodiment, located to the right of the right eye, shown at 46. Display unit 42 is located to the right of the largest vertical circle defined by the sphere. Rays of light, referenced 48, that are projected from display unit 42 are reflected from surface 40 to the eye in substantially parallel fashion and at an angle of about 15 degrees from the central line of sight 50 of the eye. An image formed by a plurality of rays of light reflected from surface 40 as described is thus perceived by the rider to have emanated from infinity and it appears in his instantaneous field of view, but not in the center thereof. Although the display assembly has been described solely with reference to area 36, according to an additional embodiment of the invention, a display unit, similar to unit 42, may be provided so as to provide motorcycle data to area 38 either in addition or as an alternative to the data provided to area 36. It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that, in an alternative embodiment of the invention, the image may be projected onto surface 40 such that it appears above the central line of sight and not at the side thereof as described. There may also be provided a corrective optical element 52 through which rays of light 48 pass before being reflected from surface 40. Element 52 shall mainly be used for correcting astigmatism and may be, for example, a cylindrical or prismatic lens. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, display unit 42 is a high intensity dot matrix display such as an HDSP.2002 manufactured by Hewlett Packard. Alternatively, unit 42 may comprise a high intensity miniature seven or sixteen segment display, such as a Hewlett Packard HPDL-1414, or a transparent LCD with a light source. Display unit 42 is preferably connected by means of electrical cable 54 to DPU 28 via a quick release connector 56. Reference is now made to Fig. 3 which is a block diagram illustration of electronic circuitry useful in DPU 28. According to the shown embodiment, display unit 42 comprises a dot matrix display with at least four characters of 5 x 7 dots. Indications of high beam, oil and fuel, in the form of electrical signals, are provided as input to a data multiplexer and control logic unit 58. Unit 58 is operative to amplify the signals and by an OR logic unit provides an output which indicates if there is any problem in one or more of the indicators. Velocity pulses are provided by the electro-opto-mechanical transducer 26 to a level translator 60 and are thereafter provided to a counter 62. Counter 62 is controlled by a master clock 64 by means of a divider 66 so that the output from the counter is in the form of a binary number that is a direct indication of the velocity. The outputs of counter 62 and unit 58 are provided as input to a character generator 68 which is effective to translate the input into an output format suitable for provision to display unit 42. A counter 70 controls character generator 68 and at the same time synchronizes a column decoder 72 that controls, through drivers 74, which of the five columns in each of the characters is to receive the output from the character generator 68. Each of the five columns that constitute display unit 42 is made up of 7 dots x 4 characters = 28 bits. The output from character generator 68 for each column is stored in a shift register 76. The output of shift register 76 to display unit 42 is synchronized by master clock 64 through buffers 78. Master clock 64 also synchronizes shift control logic 80 which provides dot clock and also provides blank signal to display 42 via buffers 78. The light intensity of the display is controlled by a potentiometer 82 governed by the motorcycle rider and by a PWM generator 84 which controls the duty cycle of the blinking signal of shift control logic 80 and so changes the average brightness of the display. With reference to Fig. 6, it is seen that alternatively the system may be implemented by employing a single chip CPU, this embodiment being in other repects similar or identical to that illustrated in Fig. 3. Reference is now made to Fig. 4 which is an illustration of electro-opto-mechanical interface transducer 26 (also shown in Figs. 1 and 3) used for transforming velocity and motor RPM into electrical signals. Transducer 26 comprises a rotary shaft 86 which is mechanically connected at a location 88 to an end of the motorcycle speedometer cable (not shown). Shaft 86 is further connected, at an end 90 thereof, to a speedometer (not shown). Shaft 86 is mounted within transducer housing 92 by means of a bearing 94. A slotted disk 96 is mounted onto shaft 86 and is rotatable together therewith. As the disk is rotated, a slit 98 passes through an optical switch 100, which, for example, may be MOC75T1 manufactured by Motorola. Optical switch 100 includes an infrared emitting diode located to one side of disk 96 and an infrared detector on the other side thereof. As the disk is rotated and passes through the infrared emission, a pulsed signal is detected by the infrared detector. Each turn, therefore, of the speedometer cable, which in turn causes a corresponding turn of shaft 86 and disk 96, causes an electrical pulse to be transmitted from optical switch 100, through a connection 102, to DPU 28. Reference is now made to Fig. 5 which is a schematic illustration of a motorcycle rider's instantaneous field of view including motorcycle data as displayed by the display apparatus of the present invention. The line of sight 50 is taken to be in the direction of travel of the motorcycle. Superimposed onto a portion of the visor (not shown) is display data, shown generally at 104. As described above in conjunction with Fig. 2, the data is displayed to one side of the field of view, typically at an angle 106 of about 15 degrees from line of sight 50. The display data is perceived by the eye to be floating in infinite conjugate ratio thereto. Sample display data shown in Fig. 5 includes a velocity of 65 Km/h shown at 106 and a motor RPM of 30 x 100 shown at 108. A warning signal in the form of a blinking exclamation mark is shown at 110. The velocity and RPM indications are shown in 7 segment format, while the warning signal is shown in special LED configuration.

Claims: Motorcycle visual display apparatus for use with a motorcycle having instruments indicating operating parameters such as speed and motor RPM, comprising: signal processing means (28) having an input associable with the motorcycle instruments; a motorcycle rider's crash helmet having a transparent visor (34) with a curved portion (36); a visual display surface positioned on said curved portion (36) of said transparent visor and positionable in the motorcycle rider's instantaneous field of view, said visual display surface being provided by a regularly reflective coating on the inward facing surface (40) of said curved portion; and visual display means (32) having a display unit (42) for receiving output data from said signal processing means (28) and for projecting said data onto said visual display surface to be regularly reflected by said regularly reflective coating towards the eyes (46) of the motorcycle rider so that said data is perceived by the motorcycle rider as being at infinity; wherein said regularly reflective coating is a dichroic type coating. Display apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a quick release connector (56) interconnecting said signal processing means (28) and said visual display means (32). Display apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said inward facing surface (40) has a spherical curvature and is positionable directly in the rider's line of sight without any intervening object being present. Display apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said visual display means (32) includes astigmatism correction means (52) disposed in the optical path between said display unit (42) and said inward facing surface (40). Display apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said visor (34) is made of polycarbonate material.

Inventors: GERLITZ YONATAN, MORAN DAN, GERLITZ, YONATAN, MORAN, DAN
Applicants: RASAAT
Application year: 1989
Main classification: G02B27
IPC codes: G02B27, G09F9, B62J99