Nissan Motor Company Limited

Kiyoshi Yamaki

Masanori Mizote

Hiroyuki Nomura

Takashi Oka

Hideoki Matsuoka

Takaaki Mogi

Hidetaka Suzuki

Teruo Kawasaki

Haruto Tanaka

Kazuyuki Mori

Hitoshi Takeda

Akitoshi Mimura

Tadashi Suzuki

Norimasa Kishi

Hiroshi Tsuda

Yoshiro Morimoto

Hiroshi Endo

Norio Fujiki

Yasuhisa Takeuchi

Shinichi Kato

Akira Tachibana

Fumiyoshi Kuwano

A road map display system for an automotive vehicle displays a mark representative of a vehicle's position and direction. The mark is positioned at the center of a display screen and the coordinate system of the map is transformed depending on the vehicle's direction so that the mark indicative of the direction is always directed upward along the y-axis of the display. The system further includes a scale selector which is manually operable. Depending on the selected map scale, the displayed map is magnified or reduced.

Road map display system with indication of a vehicle position

A moving obstacle detection system for an automotive vehicle utilizing a doppler effect of the transmitted wave against an obstacle which runs in front of the vehicle such as another vehicle. The system generally comprises: (a) a doppler radar unit which operates so as to produce a doppler signal when the vehicle is halted; (b) a detecting means which detects the changing phase of a doppler signal produced from the doppler signal; (c) a discriminating means which discriminates the departure of another vehicle from the front area of the vehicle and the intersection of another vehicle or pedestrian traverse to the vehicle on a basis of the frequency changing rate or amplitude level changing rate of the detected doppler signal; and (d) an alarm unit which produces an alarm in a predetermined form only when the departure of another vehicle from the front detection area of the doppler radar unit or in the case when another vehicle straightly approaches or departed from the vehicle and in the case when another vehicle or pedestrian goes across the vehicle, separately from each other.

Moving obstacle detection system for a vehicle

A road map display system comprises a map memory for storing map image data, a sensor for detecting the travelling distance and travelling direction and outputting a signal representative of the angular offset between the direction of travel and an axis of a map coordinate system, an arithmetic means for calculating the map coordinates of a point halfway between the vehicle position and the destination, a coordinate transforming means which transforms the map image data to a display coordinate system, the origin of which lies halfway between the vehicle and the destination and the y-axis of which lies parallel to the direction of travel, a display memory in which the map data and symbols representing the destination and the position and the direction of travel of the vehicle are stored in terms of the display coordinate system, and a display means displaying the information stored in the display memory on the display screen.

Road map display system with indications of a vehicle position and

A display of images on a screen which is installed in an automotive vehicle for displaying the driving direction and location of the automotive vehicle within a graphic pattern, such as a drive map, comprising: (a) a screen device; (b) a first memory unit in which data of a graphic pattern to be displayed on said screen device is stored; (c) a second memory unit in which at least one word and mark to be superimposed on the graphic pattern and those positional data on the graphic pattern are stored; (d) a signal generator which outputs a command signal to rotate the graphic pattern on said screen unit by an angle with respect to an original position; (e) a shift circuit which shifts the positions of all words and marks stored in said second memory unit to those rotated at the angle corresponding to the command signal from said signal generator; and (f) an image control unit which controls the display of graphic pattern rotated by the angle corresponding to the command signal from said signal generator on said screen unit and controls the superimposition of at least one word and mark stored in said second memory unit on the position of the graphic pattern shifted by said shift circuit.

System for maintaining an orientation of characters displayed with a

An electronic liquid level gauge for measuring the level of a liquid contained in a vessel by employing an electrode pair immersed in the liquid. The electrode pair is associated with an oscillator which generates pulses of a repetition period directly proportional to the electrostatic capacity of the electrode pair. A counter is provided which is reset by an oscillator pulse and starts counting reference pulses of a predetermined repetition rate with a predetermined time delay relative to the occurrence of the oscillator pulse.

Electronic liquid level gauge

A navigation instrument comprises a first counter for counting travelling distance from a start point, a second counter for counting travelling time from starting, a means for setting a scheduled average vehicle speed, an arithmetic means for calculating average vehicle speed, the deviation of travelling distance from the scheduled distance and the deviation of travelling time from the scheduled time, and a display means for displaying the result of calculation. The first counter is capable of subtractively counting travelling distance in response to switching operation of a switching means which is incorporated to the first counter. The first counter is also incorporated with a means for stopping navigating operation which is operative when the first counter counts down the travelling distance until a given value.

Navigation instrument

A steering wheel device for an automotive vehicle, comprises a steering shaft arranged in the automotive vehicle, a steering wheel frame fixed to the upper end portion of the steering shaft, a main frame which can move in relation to the steering wheel frame, a steering wheel pad attached to the main frame in such a way that the steering wheel pad can function as a horn switch, the steering wheel pad having a plurality of operation holes, and a plurality of operation switches for controlling an electric device other than the horn switch, the operation switches being fixed at the bottom portion thereof to the steering wheel frame. The top of the operation switches is placed in the corresponding operation holes and apart from the front surface of the steering wheel pad by such a distance that, when the steering wheel pad is pushed to actuate the horn switch, the top of the operation switches does not protrude from the front surface of the steering wheel pad.

Switch arrangement on motor vehicle steering wheels

A navigation instrument for use with a roadway vehicle to calculate and display the average speed of the vehicle and the deviations of the travelling distance and time of the vehicle from scheduled ones in accordance with the travelling distance and time and a scheduled vehicle average speed. The calculated results are not displayed and instead a zero-flashing or blanking indication is made to prevent the driver from having any unreliable information during the initial running operation of the vehicle.

A navigation instrument for use with a roadway vehicle comprises an arithmetic means producing three data signals showing the average speed of the vehicle, the deviation of the travelling distance from a scheduled one, and the deviation of the travelling time from a scheduled one, and a display means for displaying the three data sequentially fed from the arithmetic means through a signal selector means. The arithmetic means includes travelling distance/time deviation accumulating means for adding the deviation of the travelling distance/time with respect to the average speed initially set to the deviations of the travelling distance/time whenever the average speed is altered. Thus, the navigation instrument of the present invention makes it possible to calculate and display the travelling distance/time deviation accumulated value when the average speed of the vehicle is altered on the way of vehicle travelling.

A navigation information announcing system for a motor vehicle comprises a tape player, circuitry for measuring the distance actually travelled by the vehicle, circuitry for reproducing distance information pre-recorded on a magnetic tape, and a comparator. A distance indicated by a reproduced datum from a magnetic tape is compared with the distance actually travelled so that the tape player performs a pause operation until the two distances equal each other. When these distances equal each other, the normal playback operation is reestablished so as to reproduce oral information pre-recorded on the magnetic tape, supplying the vehicle driver with directional information.

Navigational information announcing system for motor vehicle

A speed-change control system for an automatic transmission includes a vehicle speed sensor, an engine load sensor, speed change program memory circuits, a comparator for comparing signals from the sensors with signals from the memory circuit, and a speed change control circuit for producing a signal for changing the transmission into a determined speed position in response to an output from the comparator. According to the invention the control system comprises a differentiation unit for differentiating the signal from the vehicle speed sensor to produce a signal corresponding to an actual acceleration, a programmed acceleration memory circuit for storing programmed accelerations obtained corresponding to the signals from the engine load sensor at every speed positions to produce signals corresponding to the programmed accelerations, and means for changing the speed change programs in response to differences between the signals corresponding to the actual acceleration and to the programmed acceleration, thereby automatically selecting a speed change program suitable for a grade of a road and a loaded condition without a troublesome hand operation of a switch for selecting a speed change program by a driver.

Speed-change control system for an automatic transmission

An apparatus for adjusting the position and/or angle of each movable equipment of a motor vehicle comprises sensors to produce electrical signals indicative of the position and/or angle of each movable equipment, memory circuit including a plurality of memory units for respectively storing sensed information indicative of the optimal positions and/or angles of the equipment for each driver, comparators responsive to the sensed information and the stored information, and driving circuitry responsive to output signals of the comparators to adjust the positions and/or angles of the equipment. When the drivers are changed, the sensed information is compared with the stored information and then the position and/or angle of each equipment is adjusted until the sensed information equals the stored information to provide the driver with the optimal position and/or angle.

Apparatus for adjusting the position and/or angle of each movable

An electronic trip meter for an automotive vehicle comprises an up-down counter, a memory circuit, an adder-subtractor, a display circuit, and other auxiliary circuits. The up-down counter produces a signal indicative of a remaining distance to a goal by subtracting an actually travelled distance from a preset distance between two points for displaying the remaining distance by the display circuit. When the vehicle reaches the goal, the adder-subtractor produces a signal indicative of the actually travelled distance in accordance with the output signals of the up-down counter and the memory circuit in which the preset distance is stored. The adder-subtractor output signal is then fed to the up-down counter for displaying the actual distance between the two points and to the memory circuit for correcting the preset distance whereby a remaining distance to the starting point in a return trip is easily and accurately obtained. The trip meter may be also utilized for a trip beyond the goal.

Electronic trip meter for an automotive vehicle

An electronic trip meter for a motor vehicle comprises an up-down counter, a memory circuit, display circuit, and other auxiliary circuits. The up-down counter produces an output signal indicative of a distance travelled by the vehicle by counting a number of pulses generated each time the vehicle travels a predetermined distance or a distance remaining to an objective point of a predetermined course by subtracting the travelled distance from a preset distance. The counting up and down functions of the up-down counter is manually controlled for compensating for a travelled distance along a wrong course. The output of the up-down counter is fed to the display circuit for displaying a distance indicated by the output signal thereof. A plurality of distances of legs of a predetermined course may be stored in the memory circuit so that each distance is fed to the up-down counter as the predetermined distance.

Electronic trip meter for a motor vehicle

An electronic trip meter with a correction circuit for an automotive vehicle comprises a counter for producing an ouput signal indicative of a measured distance, an error detector for deriving an error factor of the measured distance with respect to a reference distance, a correction circuit for correcting the measured distance by the error factor, and a display circuit for displaying the corrected distance.

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Yokohama, Japan

Kiyoshi Yamaki