Vehicle information display on steering wheel surface

Abstract

A vehicle steering wheel is provided with a thin reconfigurable display such as an LED, an LCD, an electro-luminescent display, or other types of reconfigurable thin display. Vehicle instrument information such as speedometer, fuel level, vehicle temperature, engine speed, etc. are provided on this display. The reconfigurable display is provided with a control that reconfigures the location of the information on the display. The control is provided with a signal indicative of rotation of the steering wheel, and the control takes that signal and adjusts the information such that the displayed information maintains a particular orientation relative to the horizontal during a turn. With the present invention, the vehicle operator need only consult the vehicle steering wheel to obtain information about the vehicle condition. There are thus less constraints on the design of the steering wheel, and in the requirement of providing visual access to the instrument panel.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.