External rotary controller for a vehicle
AssigneeEnhance, Inc.
InventorDimitar Nikolov Stoimenov
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An external control device configured for interaction with a modern vehicle and activation of different functions in a non-distracting manner, and to a system comprising such external control device. The external control device includes a housing with at least one rotary encoder, at least one display, at least one shortcut button, a control unit with a control logic module, and a power module. Each shortcut button activates a pre-configured feature of the vehicle when pressed. Once a feature is selected by a shortcut button, the rotary encoder allows the user to adjust the selected feature by clockwise and counterclockwise rotation.
Claims7
A vehicle external control device comprising a housing with at least one rotary encoder, at least one display, at least one shortcut button, a control unit with a control logic module and a power module, wherein each shortcut button is configured to activate one of plurality pre-configured features of a vehicle when pressed, and the logic module of the control unit is configured to operate the device in two modes:
- Home Menu Mode in which the logic module is configured at rotation of said at least one rotary encoder to change functionality of said at least one shortcut button that activates one of plurality pre-configured features of a vehicle when pressed,
- Function Mode to be switched on by pressing said at least one shortcut button in the Home Menu Mode for activation of said pre-configured feature of the vehicle, wherein in the Function Mode the logic module is configured to control one or more of the pre-configured features of the vehicle and/or to adjust said one or more of the pre-configured features of the vehicle at rotation clockwise or counterclockwise of said at least one rotary encoder,
- wherein said at least one display is configured to receive from the control unit and display information for at least one of the following:
- current configuration of said at least one shortcut button in Home Menu Mode;
- current status of the activated pre-configured feature of the vehicle and/or adjusting and changing status of activated pre-configured feature of the car by rotating clockwise or counterclockwise of said at least one rotary encoder in Function Mode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.