JP2670017B2 - Car rooftop display - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rooftop display device for an automobile, and more particularly to a device for displaying characters, symbols, patterns, etc. by light emission on the rooftop of an automobile such as a taxi.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, as an example of a device provided on the roof of a taxi, as a device having the above-mentioned structure,
The name of the taxi company is written on the outer surface of the translucent resin case molded in a box shape or a ball shape,
In some cases, a light emitting element such as an electric lamp is arranged inside so that the written contents can be recognized.

[0003]

The conventional device has a good aspect in that it is easy to recognize characters, symbols, patterns, etc. even at night due to the light emitted from an electric lamp or the like.
On the other hand, since the area of the outer surface of the resin case is limited, the amount of written information is limited, and it is also difficult to catch the attention of the person.

Further, when a reserved customer is picked up by a taxi, it is difficult for the reserved customer to know which car is the reserved taxi in a place where the cars of a number of taxi companies are crowded, such as in a downtown area. There was room for improvement in this respect as well.

It is an object of the present invention to increase the amount of information to be notified without increasing the display area of a display device arranged on the roof of an automobile, and yet to make the display device easily noticeable. is there.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems The technical means of the present invention, which has been devised to achieve the above object, is provided with a light emitting type display means which is visible from the front side of the automobile to the roof of the automobile. Control means for laterally moving a display pattern such as characters, symbols, and patterns displayed on the display means over time, and input means for inputting to the control means a display pattern to be output to the display means. Equipped with
Further, the input means is a transmitter for transmitting a predetermined display pattern by a radio signal from outside the vehicle, and a receiver provided on the side of the vehicle for receiving the radio signal and inputting the display pattern to the control means. And, in the control means, the received data in the receiving unit is held in a memory,
The data read from the memory is output as a command signal to the display means. As the input unit, it is preferable that the transmitting unit is provided in a taxi company and the receiving unit is provided in a taxi.

[0007]

With the above construction, since the display pattern is displayed by the light emission of the display means, it can be visually recognized well at night, and what kind of content is displayed can be arbitrarily input from the input means. The display content can be varied. Further, since this display pattern moves in the lateral direction, the control of continuously moving the newly displayed display pattern to one end position of the display area of the display means and then erasing the other display pattern is continuously performed. As a result, more display patterns than the display device can display at one time can be displayed on the display means over time, and the display pattern can be moved to make the display more attractive. Further, since the content of the radio signal from the outside of the automobile can be displayed on the display means, it becomes possible to display some information to be displayed without performing a special operation for the driver.

According to the second aspect of the invention, when the taxi company requests the vehicle to pick up, the name of the person who requests the display means to pick up the vehicle by a wireless signal from the company side, It is possible to display the content for recognizing that the vehicle is for the person, without depending on the operation of the driving driver.

[0009]

Therefore, according to the first aspect of the invention, the display device arranged on the roof of the automobile is notified without increasing the display area in a state where the display contents can be grasped even at night. The amount of information required was increased, and moreover, the structure was easy to be noticed by humans. Furthermore, the required information can be displayed based on a signal from the outside of the vehicle without bothering the driver. Further, according to the configuration of claim 2,
When a taxi company requests a vehicle to be picked up, the name of the person requesting the vehicle, such as the name of the person who requested the vehicle to be picked up, is displayed on the target taxi by a wireless signal from the company. Therefore, it is possible to facilitate the identification by the reserved customer.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1, FIG. 6, FIG. 7, and FIG. 8 show a vehicle used as a taxi equipped with a rooftop display device according to the present invention. This display device is a display means A provided on the rooftop of the vehicle. The control means B for laterally moving the display pattern of characters, symbols, patterns, etc. displayed on the display means A with time, and the display pattern to be output to the display means A are input to the control means B. And input means C.

In the vehicle, a room R is formed inside a body 2 having front and rear wheels 1, and the display means A is attached to the upper surface of a roof 3 which covers the room R. A charge meter case D is provided on the upper surface of the dash panel 4 in the room.

As shown in FIG. 2, in the fare meter case D, a fare display section 5 for displaying the fare to the passengers by digital numbers on the rear surface thereof, and lighting of a built-in lamp are used to "empty", "fare", and "charge". It is provided with a character display section 6 for displaying characters of "surcharge", "payment", and "pick-up vehicle", and five selection switches 7 for switching the operation of the charge meter and selectively displaying the character display section 5.

The display means A has a display panel 8 in which the display contents can be viewed from the front of the automobile and a display panel 8 in which the display contents can be viewed from the rear of the driver, which are built in a transparent case 9 and supported by a frame 10. Each display panel 8 has a large number of two-color light emitting diodes 11 arranged in a dot pattern. The light emitting diode 11 is a device in which an element (not shown) that emits red light and an element (not shown) that emits green light are embedded in a transparent resin, and one element is driven to emit red light. The other element is driven to emit green light, and each of them is simultaneously driven to obtain an amber (yellowish brown) emission color.

In this display panel 8, one of the cathode terminals or the anode terminals of the respective elements is made common in the vertical direction, and the other terminal is made common in the horizontal direction, thereby forming a diode matrix and forming a dynamic matrix. It can be displayed by the drive.

As shown in FIG. 3, on the front surface of the charge meter case D, a display surface in which a large number of light emitting diodes 11 are aligned and arranged in a position visible through the windshield 12 like the display panel 8 is provided. 13 is formed (the number of dots is smaller than that of the display panel 8), and the display surface 13 is "empty" by lighting the light emitting diode 11.
Any of the characters "fare", "surcharge", "payment", and "carrying" is displayed (in the figure, the character "empty" is displayed).

The control means B is installed in the dash panel 4 of the automobile, and as shown in FIG. 4, the control means B comprises a microprocessor 14, a memory 15, an input interface 16 and an output interface 17, and an output interface. A driver 18 composed of a switching transistor is provided at 17. The microprocessor 14
Reads the data held in the memory 15 and displays the display pattern of characters, symbols, patterns, etc. based on this data by the display means A.
Is displayed on the display panel 8 and the control operation is set so as to move in the lateral direction with the lapse of time.

Further, the microprocessor 14 has a built-in image memory (not shown) for holding bitmap data having display data as an address in the horizontal direction, and the microprocessor 14 reads out the data in the image memory one by one. , And the operation is set so that the data can be output and the data can be displayed on the display panel 8. Further, by shifting the address of the image memory or changing the correspondence between the image memory and the display panel 8, The display panel displayed on the display panel 8 is configured to be able to move in the horizontal direction.

The movement of the display pattern is determined based on a signal obtained by dividing the clock of the microprocessor 14, and the movement speed can be changed by a predetermined operation.

Further, a control program is held in the memory 15 and "empty", "rental", "additional" and "payment" are carried out.
Code data of a predetermined word, such as "Arrive"
String data constituting short sentences and character font data are held.

This automobile is equipped with three types of input means C capable of independent input operation, and one of the input means C is a character input keyboard 19 provided in the vehicle as shown in FIG. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, one is a selection switch 7 provided in the charge meter case D, and one is, as shown in FIG. 4, a transmitting unit for transmitting a predetermined display pattern from outside the vehicle by a radio signal. 20 and a receiving section 21 provided on the automobile side for receiving the radio signal and inputting the display pattern to the control means A.

The character input keyboard 19 has almost the same structure as a microcomputer keyboard, and data is held in the memory 15 when an input operation is performed. The selection switch 7 of the fare meter case D is originally for illuminating and displaying "empty car", "fare", "additional charge", "payment", "pick-up", etc. One of these selection switches is selected and operated. By doing so, "empty car", "fare", "additional charge", "payment", "carrying" stored in the memory 15 beforehand
Is read out from the memory 15 and output to the display surface 13. As shown in FIG. 5, the transmitting unit 20 is composed of a keyboard 20A, a decoding unit 20B, and a wireless transmitter 20C installed in a facility that receives a taxi dispatch request, and the receiving unit 21 receives data from a wireless receiver 21A and signals. It is composed of an encoding unit 21B for converting into a code.

Further, the present vehicle is provided with a data transmission unit 22 for wirelessly communicating information currently displayed on the display means A and information for identifying this vehicle to the taxi company. It is configured so that the operation status can be grasped and operation management can be performed.

By forming the control system for display in this way, the memory switch can be operated by turning on the "empty" selection switch 7 of the charge meter case D when traveling without passengers. The microprocessor 14 reads data such as the company name of the taxi company and the catchphrase which are stored in advance in 15 as a short sentence, and the display pattern based on this data is displayed on the display means A in a state of being horizontally moved. At the same time, the data of the character “empty” read from the memory 15 is displayed on the display surface 13. It should be noted that a control operation for displaying the character “empty” in the corner of the display panel 8 may be performed.

[0024] When traveling with a passenger on board,
By turning on the selection switch 7 of the above, the microprocessor 14 reads the data such as the company name of the taxi company and the catchphrase, which are held in the memory 15 in advance as a short sentence, and the display pattern based on this data is moved laterally. It is displayed on the display means A in the state of being allowed to be displayed, and at the same time, the characters "wasawa" are displayed on the display surface 13. It should be noted that a control operation may be performed to display the word "wasawa" in the corner of the display panel 8.

When a reserved customer is to be picked up by a command from the company, the driver is instructed to pick up the reserved customer by voice of the wireless communication, and at the same time, input from the keyboard 20A of the transmitter 20. The name of the reserved customer is wirelessly transmitted to the receiving unit 21, and the microprocessor 14 holds the received data (name of the reserved customer) in the memory 15 and at the same time holds the data thus stored (name of the reserved customer). ) Is read from the memory 15 and a display pattern based on this data is displayed on the display means A, and the character “Arrival” is displayed on the display surface 13. During this control, the driver can also turn on the "Arrival" selection switch 7 to display the characters "Arrival" and display the name of the reserved customer on the display means A. When doing so, the control operation may be set so that the company name of the taxi company, the catch phrase, or the like is displayed at the same time.

As described above, by providing the light emitting type display means A on the roof of the automobile, good visibility is secured even at night, and the display pattern displayed on the display means A is moved laterally. By doing so, a high publicity effect is obtained by drawing the attention of a person walking on the sidewalk, and by displaying a desired display pattern by operating the input means C, it is possible to satisfactorily respond to various situations. It is a simple operation such as operating the selection switch 7 of the charge meter case D, but a pattern of complicated contents can be displayed.

Further, in the case of using wireless data input, the driver does not feel any annoyance, the driving is not hindered, and the necessary display can be performed. With the configuration in which the display contents can be grasped by the company side by using, the control operation is set to wirelessly transmit the code data etc. that specify the car, so that each taxi company located far from the car This makes it possible to manage the operation of the vehicle and to perform appropriate vehicle allocation.

[Other Embodiments] The present invention can be configured as follows in addition to the above embodiments.

(B) As shown in FIG. 9, by making the display means A rectangular in plan view, the display panels 8 and 8 are formed on both side surfaces in addition to the front and rear display panels 8 and 8. A display pattern of characters, symbols, figures, etc. can be displayed on each of the four display panels 8 ... still,
In the case where the shape of the display means A is set in this way, when controlling the movement of the display pattern in the lateral direction,
The same pattern or different patterns are simultaneously displayed on each of the four surfaces, and they are moved in the same direction at exactly the same moving speed, or moved in different directions.
Display in various forms is possible.

(B) As shown in FIG. 10, display means A
Is formed into a circular shape in a plan view to form a cylindrical display panel 8 on the entire circumference of the side portion, and display patterns such as characters, symbols, and figures can be displayed on the display panel. In the case where the shape of the display means A is set in this way, when controlling the movement of the display pattern in the lateral direction, a pattern such as texts in the circumferential direction of the display panel 8 is newly added at a specific position. It is possible to display the display panel 8 in an endless state in the circumferential direction by displaying it, moving it in the horizontal direction, and erasing it at a predetermined position, and dividing the surface of the display panel 8 into a plurality of display surfaces (display area). It does not need to be physically divided), and it is possible to display in various forms, such as displaying different display patterns on the divided display surfaces. is there.

(C) As shown in FIG. 11, display means A
Is formed in a horizontally long shape in which display panels 8 are formed on both front and rear surfaces, and the display means A is rotatably attached to the upper surface of the roof 3 of the automobile through a vertically oriented support shaft 23. The display panels 8 and 8 are configured to be switchable in posture so as to be oriented toward the side surface of the vehicle body as shown by a phantom line in FIG. It should be noted that this posture switching may be performed manually, or may be performed by the power of an actuator such as an electric motor.

(D) The display means A is constituted by a liquid crystal display having a backlight. The liquid crystal display may be a monochrome display or a color liquid crystal capable of gradation display.

(E) The control means B comprises a memory holding font data such as characters, an address counter for designating an address of this memory, a shift register for retaining the value of the address designated by the address counter, and this shift. By providing a driver for outputting the signal of the register to the display means, it is configured only by a hard circuit without a microprocessor.

(F) The control operation of the control means B is not performed by horizontally moving the display pattern displayed on the display means A at a constant speed, but after the horizontal movement is performed for a predetermined time. The control operation for stopping for a certain period of time, or changing the moving speed, or the blinking operation is performed.

(G) The input means C is configured to use radio waves from a communication satellite.

(H) Using the microprocessor that constitutes the control means B, the voice synthesizer is activated, and in the human words, "Welcome" and "Thank you."
And so on.

(I) For the purpose of promptly notifying a person outside the vehicle of a taxi robbery, the input means C is constituted by a switch provided separately from the above-mentioned switches, and the taxi is robbed by operating this switch. It is configured to output a word that is recognized to the display means A.

Incidentally, reference numerals are written in the claims for convenience of comparison with the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the configuration of the attached drawings by the entry.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 Correspondence diagram for complaints about control

[Figure 2] Rear view of the charge meter case

[Figure 3] Front view of the charge meter case

FIG. 4 is a block circuit diagram of a control system.

FIG. 5 is a block circuit diagram of a transmitting unit and a receiving unit.

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional side view of a portion of an automobile driver's seat.

FIG. 7 is a front view showing a display unit.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of an automobile

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a display unit according to another embodiment (a).

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of display means of another embodiment (b).

FIG. 11 is a plan view of a display means of another embodiment (c).

[Explanation of symbols]

 A display means B control means C input means 20 transmitting section 21 receiving section

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A light emitting type display means (A) that is visible from the front side of the automobile to the rooftop of the automobile is provided, and characters, symbols, patterns, etc. displayed on the display means (A) are displayed. Output to the display means (A) and the control means (B) for moving the display pattern laterally with the passage of time.
Input the display pattern to be input to the control means (B).
And a force means (C), further, the input means (C), a predetermined display pattern
A transmitter (20) that sends a wireless signal from outside the vehicle
The control means receives the radio signal and displays the display pattern.
The receiver (2) provided on the automobile side for inputting to (B)
1), and the control means (B) includes a receiving unit (21).
Holding the received data in the memory (15)
The data read from this is used as a command signal to the display means (A).
A rooftop display device for an automobile configured to output. 2. The transmitting unit (20) of the input means (C)
It is installed in a taxi company, and the receiving part (21) is a taxi.
The rooftop display device for an automobile according to claim 1, which is provided .