BE1019606A3 - ON-VEHICLE SYSTEM FOR LED-BASED VEHICLES. - Google Patents

Abstract

An onboard measurement system comprising a detection module that provides measured information, a processing module that provides an electrical signal delivered to a display module that displays an otpic signal representative of the measured information. According to the invention, the display module comprises a window of the vehicle in which is integrated at least one LED which manages the optical signal.

Description

On-board vehicle system based on LEDs 1. Field of the invention

This invention relates to an on-board vehicle system. More particularly, this invention relates to an onboard detection system for a vehicle.

2. State of the art

On-board vehicle systems include on-board vehicle detection systems such as, for example, on-board obstacle detection systems for vehicles. An onboard obstacle detection system uses a telemetry system. The majority of telemetry systems for obstacle detection are based on at least one of the following techniques: • Sonar; • Radar; • Laser radar; • Vision system (such as a camera).

It is important to be able to provide the information measured by the onboard detection system to the driver of the vehicle, for example a car, without submerging it with a stream of data. Different solutions have been suggested.

According to a first solution, it has been proposed to provide the information measured in the form of noise (audible signal) or voice signal to the driver. According to a second solution, the transmission of the measured information can be done through a signal made based on vibrations of the driver's seat.

Nevertheless, HMI experts do not recommend using sound or vibration as signals for the transmission of measured information to the driver, because such media may distract the driver or at least the bored, especially if these signals are generated several times during a single trip.

A third solution proposes to display the measured information in the form of an optical signal on the dashboard of the vehicle. The advantage of this third solution is that the signal is less distracting or annoying but the risk is that the driver does not detect the signal and the system is useless.

3. OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION The invention, in at least one of its embodiments, is intended to provide an on-board vehicle detection system which displays to the user an optical signal representative of a measured information, the optical signal being remarkable without being distracting or annoying to the driver.

The invention, in at least one of its embodiments, also aims to provide such a solution that makes it possible to display the optical signal without the need to add any complex projection equipment.

The invention, in at least one of its embodiments, also aims at providing such a solution that makes it possible to display the optical signal without substantially modifying the interior of the vehicle.

The invention, in at least one of its embodiments, is also intended to provide such a solution which is particularly advantageous in the case of an on-board obstacle detection system for a vehicle.

The invention, in at least one of its embodiments, also aims to provide such a solution that is simple and inexpensive.

4. Summary of the invention

According to a first aspect, the present invention provides an on-board measurement system for a vehicle as defined in claim 1.

Because the optical signal is displayed on the vehicle glazing, the optical signal is remarkable without being distracting or annoying to the driver.

In addition, since the display LEDs are incorporated in the vehicle glazing, the interior of the vehicle is not significantly modified and no complex projection equipment is required. In this way, an inexpensive solution is obtained for displaying measured information to the user.

The dependent claims define features of preferred or alternative embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention is described in a detailed but nonlimiting manner in the following description with reference to drawing plates in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic view of an obstacle detection system embedded in a car according to one embodiment of the invention;

Fig 2 is a schematic view of a windshield of the car according to a first embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged cross section of the windshield of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged cross-section of a windshield of the car according to a second embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged cross section of a windshield of the car according to one embodiment of the invention which illustrates the concealment of the bus bars;

Fig. 6 is another schematic view of the on-board obstacle detection system of FIG.

6. Description of at least one embodiment of the invention

According to one embodiment of the present invention, hereinafter we describe an onboard vehicle measurement system which is an obstacle detection system embedded in a car. According to this embodiment, the user of the vehicle is the driver of the car who must be warned of the presence of an obstacle in front of his car.

As illustrated by FIGS. 1 and 6, the obstacle detection system 10 comprises: a telemetry module 11 comprising a sensor 111 which measures, for example every millisecond, the distance between the car and any obstacle in front of the car (The telemetry module may be any of the modules conventionally based on sonar, radar, laser radar or vision systems such as a camera), • a processing module 12 (which comprises for example a module 121 for processing and thresholding of the measured signal and a current regulator 122) which analyzes the distances measured by the telemetry module and which generates an electrical alarm signal (representative of the information measured by the module telemetry) which is provided to: a display module comprising the windshield of the car, the display module accordingly displaying an optical signal to the driver, the optical signal being entative of the distance measured by the telemetry module.

Obviously, according to a particular embodiment of the present invention, an electric alarm signal can be generated and displayed to the driver (once converted into an optical signal) for example when the distance between the car and an obstacle is less than a distance. threshold (the comparison being made by the processing module).

The telemetry module and the processing module can be embedded in the front part of the car.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the display module 13 can be made from a set of six LEDs ("Light Emitting Diodes" or "light emitting diodes" in French) 21 integrated in a peripheral zone of the windshield 22 of the car as shown in Figure 2. For example, the number of LEDs on and / or the color of these LEDs can be an indicator of the risk encountered (eg approach too fast of a planned obstacle).

European Patent Application No. EP1437215A1 discloses laminated glass panels incorporating electronic components, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs). The windshield can be manufactured according to the method described in European Patent Application No. EP1437215Al. For these fields of application, the manufacture of a laminated glass panel comprising electronic components typically comprises a step of depositing a conductive layer (conductive coating) on a first glass sheet (first glass substrate), a step shaping (patterning) the conductive layer to provide conductive paths in the layer and a step of depositing electronic components on the conductive layer, the components being electrically connected to the conductive paths. The plastic interlayer is then deposited on the conductive layer carrying the electronic components. The sandwich is obtained by applying a second glass sheet (second glass substrate) to the plastic interlayer, which is then laminated as described before.

European Patent Application No. EP1437215Al (the description of which is considered to be incorporated in the description of this application by reference) discloses such a laminated glass panel with at least two glass substrates and one or more plastic interlayer layers, such as PVB, wherein the electronic components and their connecting circuits are formed between the two glass substrates, and wherein the connecting circuits are formed from at least one conductive layer. The electric current of a power source can be applied to the conductive layer of the laminated glass group of the patent application No. EP1437215A1 through a connector as described in European Patent Application No. EP1840449A1 ( whose description is considered to be incorporated in the description of this application by reference).

In one embodiment of the present invention, it is proposed to manufacture a windshield 22, as shown in FIG. 2, in the form of a laminated glass panel incorporating six LEDs 21 in a peripheral zone of the windshield as described below. For example, each LED in the windshield is chosen to be an RGB LED (for "Red, Blue, Green" or "red, blue, green") whose packaging is mounted on the surface (so-called "surface mount packaged" LED) manufactured by the company STANLEY (for example under reference URGB1313C-TR whose dimensions of which are 1.6 millimeters X 1.5 millimeters X 0.7 mm) which can be controlled to emit light with intensity and / or the appropriate color to display the optical signal to the user based on the distance measured by the telemetry system.

For example, the six LEDs 21 are aligned vertically in the windshield 22 (as shown in FIG. 3), each LED 21 can show a red color or a green color and the number of LEDs 21 emitting a red color from the bottom of the vertical line consisting of all the LEDs 21 is related to the distance measured between the vehicle and the obstacle. Obviously in another embodiment, single-color LEDs 21 can be used and the number of LEDs 21 lit from the bottom of the vertical line formed by all the LEDs 21 is related to the distance measured between the vehicle and the vehicle. obstacle.

The windshield 22 according to one embodiment of the present invention is described below. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the windshield 22 comprises first 31 and second 32 sheets of 3mm thick flat soda-lime float glass floated together by a thick sheet of 0.76 millimeters of PVB 33 (In a preferred embodiment, the thickness of the PVB sheet may be chosen to be 1.2 times the thickness of each LED 21). The inner surface 34 of the first glass sheet 31 is covered with an electrically conductive coating layer 35 formed of a stack of at least one conductive layer, for example a stack of transparent conductive layers of substantially neutral color deposited by CVD (for "Chemical Vapor Deposition") comprising an SiOxCy underlayer and an upper SnO 2: F layer. The coating layer 35 has a resistance of about 15 ohms per square. Interrupts 36 approximately 70 microns wide formed by laser ablation in the coating layer 35 define electrical conduction paths between the LEDs 21, the LEDs 21 being welded (or fixed with an electrically conductive adhesive 39) on the one hand. other laser ablations 36.

For example, the interruptions 36 have a width of the order of 1 to 2 millimeters. The laminated glazing is curved to obtain the desired curvature of the windshield. According to another embodiment of the invention, each of the two glass sheets 31, 32 is curved at the beginning of the process, before depositing the LEDs 21 and laminating the glass sheets 31, 32 and the PVB 33.

Each LED is in direct contact with the conductive coating 35 of the first glass sheet 31, the relative positioning of the LEDs 21 and the structuring of the conductive coating 35 illustrated in Figure 3 being schematic and not representative of the actual positioning and structuring.

In one embodiment of the present invention, in order to control each LED 21 individually, each LED 21 is connected to two copper bus bars 61 (not shown in Figure 3 but illustrated in Figure 6) placed at the periphery of the shield -brise 22 (for example on the edge 23 of the windshield) and which provide the electrical power (to power the LED) and electrical control signals (for example to choose the color of the LED) to the LED.

According to another embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4, instead of using a conductive coating 35 to supply the electrical power supply and the electrical control signals to the LEDs 21, electrical paths 1000 made for example with a silver paste (or any other conductive material) may be deposited on the first glass sheet 31 (the typical thickness of the deposited conductive material may be less than 100 microns). Such electrical paths are electrically connected to the busbars 1001 located on the periphery of the windshield 22 and include interrupts 1002 on which the LEDs 21 are glued by means of electrically conductive adhesive.

In a preferred embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5, the LEDs 21 are adapted to generate the optical signal through the second glass sheet 32 (for example, we can employ "reverse" type LEDs whose light is emitted by the back of the LED which thus make it possible to generate the optical signal towards the inside of the car). Nevertheless, in accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the LEDs 21 are adapted to generate the optical signal by the first glass sheet 31, i.e. without passing through the coating layer 35.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, preferably the bus bars 42 placed at the periphery of the windshield (before the rolling process) can be hidden (for people looking at the windshield from inside or outside the windshield). the car) by applying an enamelled coating 43 after the rolling process.

Of course, instead of laminating the first 11 and second 12 glass sheets as well as the PVB 13, another glazing unit according to the invention can be obtained by combining the first and second glass sheets in order to leave a space filled with gas between them. (air, argon, ...) such as double glazing.

Obviously, the embedded LEDs can be any type of LED (non-packaged chip, packaged LED, "reverse" LED that emits light from the back, ...) and have any suitable color (white, blue , red, RGB ...). The number of LEDs and their arrangement in the windshield (including their position in the periphery of the windshield and the pattern they form: a line, a matrix, a circle, ...) can be changed without leaving of the scope of the present invention.

In addition, the present invention has been described in the case of an obstacle detection system embedded in a car, however, the present invention can be applied to all kind of system embedded in a vehicle that must communicate at least one information to the vehicle user. For example the embedded system can also be a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a mobile phone ...

The vehicle according to the invention can be a car, but it can also be any other type of vehicle, for example: a truck, a bus, an airplane, a boat, ..., provided that it comprises a window (windshield, interior, ...) through which a user (driver, driver, ...) must be able to see.

Claims (12)

An on-board measurement system for a vehicle comprising a detection module that provides measured information, a processing module that generates an electrical signal delivered to a display module, the display module displaying an optical signal representative of the information measured, characterized in that the display module comprises a window of the vehicle in which is integrated at least one LED which generates the optical signal. 2. On-board measuring system for a vehicle according to claim 1, characterized in that the glazing comprises: a transparent substrate; an electrically conductive coating layer; a plurality of LEDs, the adjacent LEDs being electrically connected through defined electrical paths in the electrically conductive coating layer. Vehicleborne measurement system according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the electrically conductive coating layer is substantially transparent. 4. Onboard vehicle measurement system according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the electrically conductive coating layer is deposited directly on the surface of the transparent substrate. Vehicle on-board measurement system according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the glazing comprises a second substrate, remote from the first substrate so that the LEDs are placed between the two substrates. 6. On-board vehicle measuring system according to claim 5, characterized in that the first substrate and the second substrate are glass sheets, spaced apart by a gas filled space. Vehicle on-board measurement system according to claim 5, characterized in that the first substrate and the second substrate are the glass sheets and the two glass substrates are laminated together via a spacer layer. plastic, preferably comprising a layer of PVB. 8. Onboard vehicle measurement system according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said at least one LED is a RGB LED controlled so as to display the measured information. 9. embedded vehicle measuring system according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said at least one LED is a "reverse" type LED, for generating the optical signal to the interior of the vehicle. 10. On-board vehicle measuring system according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the on-board vehicle measurement system is an on-board obstacle detection system for a car, the glazing being the windshield of the vehicle. car and the measured information being a distance between the car and an obstacle. 11. embedded vehicle measuring system according to claim 10, characterized in that said at least one LED is (are) integrated (s) in the periphery of the windshield. 12. On-board measuring system for a vehicle according to any one of claims 10 and 11, characterized in that an enamelled coating is used to hide bus bars used to supply the electric current to said at least one LED.