Head-up displays (HUD) are an approach for optimizing the man-machine interface in cars . The driver information in a head-up display is seen as a virtual image through the windshield above of the engine hood. Head-up displays help increasing the road safety by reducing the accommodation time of the driver's eyes when looking at the displayed information. This also reduces fatigue during longer driving periods. So far, head-up displays in passenger cars were mostly based on self emitting displays (VFD) and therefore limited in information content and color space. The new Siemens VDO color graphics head-up display uses a transmissive TFT display and an RGB LED light source. With this technology, reconfigurable, full color graphics can be displayed on the windshield. The paper discusses the principles of the optical system design of the HUD image source. Head-up displays (HUD) are an approach for optimizing the man-machine interface in cars. The actual head up display system is mounted inside the dashboard in front of the driver and consists of the following components: LED backlight with focussing unit, diffuser, TFT display, mirror system and a transparent cover. The present contribution focuses on a head up display light source based on LEDs. The application development of this light source was started based on several years of testing and prototyping different designs. The present implementation uses 128 high brightness LEDs with specific colors to fulfill the mentioned brightness requirements. The area in which the LEDs are distributed is designed in a way to fit best to the active area of the display. The monochrome implementation is the most bright one due to the efficiency of the red LED and the increased transmission of the LCD. The brightness of such kind of system could be reduced by leaving out several LEDs. The RGB approach leads to the minimum brightness because of the less radiated intensity.
Color graphics head-up display with high brightness RGB LED light source
Farbgrafisches Head-Up-Display mit einer RGB LED-Lichtquelle hoher Helligkeit
2003
9 Seiten, 5 Bilder, 3 Quellen
Conference paper
English