US 7,719,484 B2 · Vehicle simulator having head-up display

Abstract

A vehicle simulator having a projection system for projecting a generated scene and symbology onto a common viewing screen. Tracking apparatus is provided for providing position and/or angular orientation signals representative of the eye of a person viewing the projected scene and symbology. An image generation system is included for generating the scene and symbology for the projection system, such scene and symbology being generated as a function of the position and/or angular orientation signals provided by the tracking apparatus. Such symbology is representative of symbology produced by a head-up display. The image generation system generates the scene and symbology with characteristics which simulate vignetting and/or occulting effect characteristics of the head-up display. The OTW scene and symbology are projected onto a screen and are co-located while the image generator, base or data of the eye position of the user, produces the symbology to simulate the collimation, vignetting and occulting effects of the HUD optical type used in the vehicle that is simulated.

Claims46

Dependent claims

A vehicle simulator for a human user for simulating a real vehicle having an actual head-up display that displays a real head up display image and has optical characteristics that limit viewing of the real head up display image from some points of view within the real vehicle, said simulator comprising:

a tracking apparatus providing a time-dependent signal relatable to or representative of a position of an eye of the user;
an image system forming a visual image viewable by the user, said image including a scene representing a simulated out-the-window view outside the vehicle and a simulated head-up display image simulating the real head up display image and superposed on said scene;
said image system generating said simulated head-up display image using the signal provided by the tracking apparatus so that the simulated head-up display image displayed to the user is limited when the tracking apparatus signal indicates that the user is viewing the simulated head-up display from a point of view wherein the optical characteristics of the actual head-up display in the real vehicle limit viewing of the real head up display image thereof.

A vehicle simulator for a human user, said simulator comprising:

a tracking apparatus for providing a time-dependent signal relatable to or representative of a position of an eye of the user;
an image system projecting a visual image on a surface viewable by the user, said image including an out-the-window scene representing a simulated view outside the vehicle and a simulated head-up display image superposed on said scene;
said image system including
first and second projectors, the first projector projecting the out-the-window scene onto the surface, and the second projector projecting the simulated head-up display image onto the surface;
and
an image generation system connected with the projectors for generating the scene and simulated head-up display image, said image generation system including a simulated head-up display image generator;
said simulated head-up display image generator generating said simulated head-up display image by first determining an initial head-up display for the scene and then modifying said initial head-up display to produce the simulated head-up display image based on the signal provided by the tracking apparatus so that the simulated head-up display image simulates optical characteristics of an actual head-up display;
said simulated head-up display image having a portion thereof occulted when the signal from the tracking apparatus indicates that the eye of the user is in a position in which the user would not see said portion of the simulated head-up display image in the actual head up display in the vehicle being simulated.

5 more elements

A vehicle simulator for a user for simulating a real vehicle having an actual head-up display that displays a real HUD image using a beamsplitter structure fixedly supported on the vehicle, said simulator comprising:

a display screen upon which images may be displayed for viewing by the user of the simulator;
a beam splitter structure supported stationary in the simulator between the user and the display screen so that the user views part of the display screen therethrough;
a tracking apparatus providing a time-dependent signal relatable to or representative of a position of an eye of the user;
an image system receiving the time-dependent signal from the tracking apparatus, said image system forming a simulated out-the-window view image and a simulated head-up display image and displaying said simulated out-the-window view image and simulated head-up display image on the display screen so that the user sees the simulated head-up display image through the beam splitter structure;
said simulated head-up display image being formed using the signal provided by the tracking apparatus:
wherein the image system configures the simulated head-up display image displayed to the user so that the head up display image is not displayed to the user when the tracking apparatus signal indicates that the user is viewing the simulated head-up display image from a point of view from which position in the real vehicle being simulated, the real HUD image in the actual head-up display is not visible.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Vehicle simulator having head-up display

Life of this patent

Vehicle simulator having head-up display

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims46