Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04B—TRANSMISSION
  • H04B10/00—Transmission systems employing electromagnetic waves other than radio-waves, e.g. infrared, visible or ultraviolet light, or employing corpuscular radiation, e.g. quantum communication
  • H04B10/11—Arrangements specific to free-space transmission, i.e. transmission through air or vacuum
  • H04B10/114—Indoor or close-range type systems
  • H04B10/1143—Bidirectional transmission

Definitions

• the invention relates to a data interface for the interior of motor vehicles.
• the Bluetooth standard enables the formation of short-range radio networks.
• the Bluetooth standard is described, for example, in the specification of February 22, 2002, version 1.1, issued by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group.
• PDAs and mobile phones exchange data via infrared interfaces using the IRDA standard; typically light with a wavelength between 850nm and 900nm is used; data transfer rates of up to 4 Mbit / s are possible.
• the object of the present invention is to implement a data interface for the interior of motor vehicles with little installation and cabling effort and low electromagnetic load on the occupants.
• the device has electrical connections, a signal input, a control unit connected to it and a light source controlled by this control unit, which is suitable both for vehicle interior lighting and for optical data transmission.
• the signal input is connected to a data bus of the vehicle, such as an electrical or optical CAN or multimedia bus.
• the signals coming in from the vehicle bus are processed by the control unit in such a way that they are suitable for transmission via the optical interface and can be modulated onto the light emitted by the light source.
• the interface integrated in the lighting device means that no additional installation space is required in the vehicle interior.
• the existing power supply for the lighting device can also be used for the interface, which reduces the wiring effort.
• lighting devices are preferably attached at clearly visible points in the vehicle; thus there is a direct line of sight to a large extent of the interior.
• the high availability of the interface for mobile devices guaranteed at various points in the interior.
• the use of light as the transmission medium also prevents mutual interference between the vehicle electronics / electronics and the data interfaces, and the exposure of vehicle occupants to alternating electromagnetic fields is minimized.
• the embodiment of the invention shown above is particularly suitable for unidirectional communication.
• diagnostic data can be read out by a suitably equipped notebook via the optical interface.
• multimedia data wirelessly in the entire vehicle interior via said lighting device.
• video or audio data can be made available to the passengers in motor vehicles or railroad trains.
• the wireless transmission to the suitable end devices enables a maximum of comfort.
• the light source for optical data transmission advantageously emits electromagnetic radiation in the visible spectral range. This enables the simultaneous use of the lighting device on the one hand as a light source (for example as a reading lamp) and on the other hand as an optical data interface. With an assumed data rate of approx. 115 kbit / s, switching times in the range of microseconds result which rule out a perceptible flickering of the light source and thus impairment of the lighting.
• LEDs are particularly suitable as light sources.
• they are now available on the market as white light sources of sufficient intensity and lifespan and, due to their short switching times, have proven themselves for use in data transmission.
• they advantageously have low power consumption and flat heights, which significantly simplifies installation in the vehicle interior.
• the good integrability of the LEDs into arrays represents a further advantage of these light sources;
• the use of colored LEDs is advantageous, for example, to create red lighting for night driving to avoid large differences in brightness.
• a further advantageous embodiment of the invention consists in adding an optical receiver with a signal output to the lighting device.
• This enables bidirectional communication with electronic vehicle components. For example, it is conceivable to establish a connection between a mobile phone in the vehicle interior and the external antenna of the vehicle via the interface mentioned.
• the interface can be used for wireless provision of interactive Internet services such as WWW, news or mail in mobile devices in the vehicle.
• incoming optical signals are amplified by the control unit either electrically via suitable HF amplifiers or optically in particular the IR components of the emitted radiation, for example by means of an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) and emitted again by the light source.
• EDFA erbium-doped fiber amplifier
• the functionality of an intercom in the vehicle can be realized.
• the light Use the source to support communication between vehicle occupants.
• a further advantageous embodiment of the invention consists in integrating the data interfaces described already in the production of a vehicle and thus making it possible to use, for example, diagnostic communication or multimedia devices in the vehicle without any further structural or cabling effort.
• the invention offers the possibility of retrofitting conventional vehicles accordingly. All that is required for this is the replacement of the interior lighting modules and a one-time connection of the data interfaces to a data bus of the vehicle.

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• 2002
  • 2002-06-26 DE DE2002128625 patent/DE10228625A1/de not_active Ceased
• 2003
  • 2003-06-13 AU AU2003246431A patent/AU2003246431A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2003-06-13 WO PCT/EP2003/006258 patent/WO2004004168A1/de not_active Application Discontinuation

Patent Citations (2)

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