Patent ID: 7995038

Claim:
A control interface system between a user and a plurality of vehicle systems, said control interface system comprising: an interface including a plurality of physical touch pads and a plurality of dials, said plurality of dials including an outer rotary dial positioned substantially at the center of the interface and an inner rotary dial disposed within the outer rotary dial and being concentric thereto, said inner rotary dial also operating as a push button; a display screen for displaying operations of the interface, said display screen including a plurality of display portions, said display portions having a display pad portion, a display dial portion, and a central circle portion with each display pad portion being representative of one of the plurality of physical touch pads and each of the display dial portions being representative of one of the plurality of dials including an inner dial portion being representative of the inner rotary dial and an outer dial portion being representative of the outer rotary dial and a central circle portion being representative of the inner rotary dial operating as a push button; and a mode control system controlling a plurality of control modes and coordinating the operation of the interface and the display screen, wherein a control mode is displayed as one or more vehicle systems or parameters in the plurality of display portions to identify which of the vehicle systems or parameters are accessed by the physical touch pads and the plurality of dials, wherein one of the control modes is a main control mode, and wherein one of the physical touch pads activates a vehicle climate control system and another one of the touch pads activates a vehicle audio system when the control system is in the main control mode, and wherein one of the control modes is a climate control mode for controlling the vehicle climate control system and another one of the control modes is an audio system control mode for controlling the vehicle audio system, wherein the mode control system is configured so that depressing the physical touch pad that activates the climate control system activates the climate control mode and causes all of the plurality of physical touch pads to control features of the climate control system and depressing the physical touch pad that activates the audio system activates the audio system control mode and causes all of the plurality of touch pads to control features of the audio system, and wherein the display pad portions displays the features for the climate control system or the audio system for the corresponding touch pad.