Delco Electronics Corporation

Hughes Electronics Corporation

Bell Sports, Inc.

Jerome Robert Laskowski

I-Fu Shih

Ning Wu

Ronald Kent Reger

David E Schnelker

Francine Harriet Landau

Eddie Gean Rothrock

A visual display and helmet assembly is configured to function in the presence of a harsh environment, e.g., high wind, vibration and shock and strong ambient light. The visual display preferably includes a transmissive liquid-crystal display to reduce the display's size and to enhance the intensity of a virtual image. In addition, the display is preferably reconfigurable so that different display indicia can be programmed as desired. To reduce probability of injury to a user, the visual display is carried on the exterior of the helmet with its center of mass positioned substantially on the midsagittal plane of the user. In addition, a mount permits the visual display to detach from the helmet when it is subjected to forces above a predetermined threshold. The mount is also permits yielding movement between the visual display and the helmet to enhance viewing of the image.

Visual display and helmet assembly

The image source of a head up display for a motor vehicle is illuminated from a remote high intensity source using fiber optics. The HUD image source and optics are under the dash pad of the vehicle and include color LCD or color filtered image source. The image is lighted by a high intensity light source which yields a bright projected image and which generates substantial heat. The light source includes lamps in a fan-cooled heat sink located in the vehicle engine compartment, for example, and coupled to the image source by fiber optic light guides. The light guides abut the image source to uniformly light small image patterns commensurate with the light guide size, or light spreading techniques are used for larger image patterns.

Fiber optic illumination of HUD image source

Growing community of inventors

Newbury Park, CA, United States of America

Jerome Robert Laskowski