DISPLAY SYSTEM Of INFORMATION ON a BILL-POSTER, IN PARTICULAR EMBARKS HAS EDGE Of a MOTOR VEHICLE

The invention relates to a system for displaying information on a display in particular on board a motor vehicle.

Already known in the prior art, viewing systems of this type, in which the display is connected to a central control unit of the display associated with means for controlling the display of information thereon by a user.

Integration increasingly thrust computer systems on board motor vehicles is bonded to the recent developments of different applications driving support vehicles, such as systems for mapping, route calculation, topographical display, etc...

However, these systems have a number of disadvantages in that at on-board, the display is often available for reasons of place on board the vehicle.

This size does not allow a visual surface sufficient display to simultaneously display graphics and comments.

Beneficially that it is particularly important that the information presented on the display are well readable and that they are not the driver of the vehicle or decrypt the display detail.

The displayed information must therefore be reduced to the minimum minimum useful to understanding 1' user.

This implies that should be checked for at the ergonomics software configuration the best possible.

The best means to achieve this, is to use the highest possible degree of symbols, such as icons, pictograms or graphical animations whose interpretation does not require particular explanation.

Capabilities This uses intuitive 1' user.

That is any animation or graphical icon that symbolizes clearly a function or an analogy with something known 1' user, is directly operable by the need for a prior learning.

These problems present in all fields, as for example in the field of traffic signs which is to be included for example by people of different cultures, are even more difficult to solve in the case of complex systems and usable by a wide variety of users.

The presence of a display in a motor vehicle causes novel needs to be face using different solutions to those which might otherwise be provided in conventional situations such as the use of a desktop.

Failure of expressing clearly user actions on a small display has problems of handling and at all the steps of use of the software associated with such systems.

Any tip Therefore for bypassing this problem is worth examined.

This is for example the case when 1' displaying help information to the navigation of a vehicle. This information is displayed to a specified range on the display, that cause problems for reading by 1' user.

Indeed, whatever the quality of the display device for displaying the map information, it is often necessary to be able to alter the scale of representation to produce more detailed views or more global.

to be capable of providing on the display, the area that the is to expand and also to include the inverse operation return smaller scale.

Thus that the functions enlarging or reducing conventionally employed in graphical applications navigation or traffic information in-support systems vehicle navigation ergonomic problems.

Indeed, to be capable, for such applications of positioning a pointer of area at any location of the card presented on the display so as to then activate the enlarging operation.

If it is easy of positioning the pointer area represented for example by a square superimposed on the display, using a cursor, of a designator any, or other means such as, for example, a touch screen or a speech recognition system, it is relatively difficult to perceive the effect that will have the validation of the zoom function on the display without adding additional information on the display.

The perception of the return function to smaller scale is still more complicated.

The aim of 1' invention is therefore to solve these problems.

To this end, the invention concerns a system for displaying information on a display, in particular on board a motor vehicle, wherein the display is connected to a central control unit of the display associated with means for controlling the display of information thereon, including means for control of the display on the display, forming marks an area of the display to be displayed in an enlarged scale, of the means for moving said indicia for selecting the area of the display to display in an enlarged, and means for controlling the display scale of said selected area, characterized in that 1' central control unit is adapted to control the display on the screen, moving information is cyclically reducing or increasing, to indicate to the user the possibilities of enlargement or reduction of scale.

The invention be included at the reading the description which will follow, given by way of example only and made with reference to the accompanying drawings, on which:

l-Fig. represents a synoptic scheme illustrating the structure of a viewing system of the invention;

-figure 2 depicts the operation of moving means of selecting an area in the creation of a viewing system of 1' invention;

-figs. 3,4,5 and 6 illustrate the display is animated information reducing; and

-figs. 7,8,9,10 and 11 illustrate the display increasing animated information.

Is recognized in Figure 1, the general structure of a system for displaying information on a display in particular on board a motor vehicle.

On this Figure, the display which can be any suitable display device, is designated by the general reference 1.

The display is connected to a central control unit 2 comprising all suitable microprocessor system and adapted to control the operation of the 1' display.

The central control unit is associated with means for controlling the display of information designated by the general reference 3 on the Figure 1, these means allowing a user to control the display of information on 1' display 1.

The system have different capacitances, in particular for magnifying or reducing the scale of the display for example on a selected area of the display.

Therefore, the control means 3 may for example include a conventional manner, control means the display on the screen, forming marks an area of the display to be displayed in an enlarged scale.

This area is shown for example by the reference 4 in Figure 2.

Furthermore, there is provided means for moving these marks for selecting the area of the display to display enlarged scale. Said means can consist of different elements as set forth above are generally designated by the reference 5 on the Figure 2.

These means comprise for example four keys as shown in Figure 2, adapted to control movement of the marks forming the region 4 on the display 1, under the control of the user.

These marks may for example be constituted by a square on the display overlay and whose movement to the left or right or up or down is controlled by the user for example by the corresponding keys means 5.

A sliding function may also be provided the event the user wishes to select an area which is located outside the information displayed on 1' display.

Conventionally, the control means 3 also have control means 1' and display scale factor of the selected area.

The control means may be, for example, a key whose successive actuations determine the display scale of the area.

Of course, other embodiments of the means may be contemplated.

This then the difficulty of use of a solution in which static graphic needs to be a representation of a selected area, viewed for example in the form of a square on the display, to an unambiguous information type comment written or graphic, which expresses the function which will be carried out after validating the control of enlargement or reduction of scale.

May be to use the dynamic possibilities of a display and thereby using a visual effect intuitively causing the user to perceive the initiated action without comments or complementary explanations.

The user may select the location of the zone to enlarge, it is necessary to display on the display the boundaries of this area, for example with indicia such as a frame as indicated previously.

The perception of the limiting area by the user can be complemented by the use of the dynamic information or animated on the display that expresses intuitively, the effect which will occur in the event enable the control of expansion or reduction.

Also that when it is desired to detail a region, is is focused thereon by concentrating the opposite, it suffices to animate on the display the boundaries of the region using concentric effects repeated to indicate to the user the possibility of magnification or up-scaling.

By way of example, in the case of the zoom function, one of convergence or decay, simple to perform computationally, stimulates 1 'intuition of 1' user which can then guess the operation proposed thereto.

The focussing effect can be developed in a variety of ways:

1) leaving a fixed frame to view the actual size of the area that will be enlarged and by displaying successively frames increasingly smaller towards its centre;

2) leaving a fixed frame to view the actual size of the area that will be enlarged and displaying a single frame to 1' into the fixed frame, , decreasing in size until it becomes a point in the center of the fixed frame;

3) using the previous solutions but without displaying the fixed boundary of the outer frame, etc...

This movement of animated icon of a concentric movement is to be continued for as long as the enlargement is provided. Said cyclically repeating the operation by representing the original display after the display of the smaller frame as shown in Figures 3 to 6.

The arrows illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 indicate the direction of propagation of 1' animation effect of the pictogram by concentric and need not occur for example on the display.

The area to enlarge can be delimited by an outer frame, are also contemplated to provide the user a plurality of possible scale of enlargement by means of scale driving, and even the possibility of dimensioning itself the size of this enlargement to perform, by changing the size of the outer fixed frame.

The zoom function is generally an inverse function, i.e. return of enlargement or reduction of scale. Can then search for a graphical effect which has the same impact intuitive that the previous solution.

The main difference is that in the event of a return of magnification, it is not possible to define on the screen, using a frame for example, the area that will be displayed in the event for validating the scaling down function, since the region to be displayed is greater than the surface of the display and includes the area imaged thereon.

The limits are therefore several aces and are not displayable to the step of selecting.

Magnification The back function can even follow different governed.

It can provide feedback to the last proposed lower scale display, for viewing to a fixed scale imposed and centering, etc...

As 1' idea associated with the inverse function of the zoom function, a visual effect opposite to that proposed for the zoom function.

Then reveal successively on the display, a series of icons geometric increasing diameters, i.e. illustrating a movement from growth or expansion and cyclically repeating this operation in the manner of flutter.

In reality, the effect is sufficient to the understanding and although it is perfectly possible to symbolize this function with frames, preferred is however a figure which inhales more the notion of expansion, in other words the circle.

Therefore, a wave effect similar to that obtained when discarding a stone into the water.

Similar to the zoom function, this effect can be developed in different ways.

11 can be breathed using successive display of nested circles or by a single circle whose size increases.

Can also be a complete invasion of the display or by the waves thus produced or a expansion of the circles to a size limit, for example a same order of magnitude as the frame area viewing magnification.

This effect is shown in Figures 7,8, and 11 9.10.

On Figure 7, the arrows indicate the direction of propagation of the animation by the effect of expansion or growth and need not appear on the display.

This effect may be combined with the different following:

1) can be imagined to be permit movement the center of 1 'wavelength 1' all types of moving means, for indicating the center of the next card displayed;

2) are also contemplated to provide various display scales by varying the rate of expansion of the geometric figures (e.g., the expansion is rapid, more the scaling factor is large) or on the maximum size of the geometry.

C ' way of example, in the two cases presented above, the display rate of icons can be a function of the remaining possibilities of enlargement or reduction of scale to provide the user with, this construct intuitive remaining possibilities.

Embodiments practices have verified the universality of these solutions and intuitive understanding of the functions displayed.

The satisfy all of the graphic configurations and more particularly the constraints of board displays the visual effects and can be used both on displays black and white as color display devices.