The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 19, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 24, 1997
Kazuhiro Inoguchi, Toyota, JP;
Yasuaki Hirokawa, Nagoya, JP;
Takashi Hagiwara, Chiryu, JP;
Nobuei Ito, Chiryu, JP;
Tadashi Hattori, Okazaki, JP;
Denso Corporation, Kariya, JP;
Abstract
A transparent display panel such as an electroluminescent panel is overlapped on a part of a conventional instrument panel for use in an automobile. The overlapped display panel displays additional information such as navigation maps when required and is turned off under a normal driving condition. When the overlapped transparent display panel is turned off, the conventional instrument panel displays information such as a vehicle speed, an engine speed so and so forth. In this situation, overall luminance on the combined display panel is made uniform throughout a whole surface including the area where the transparent display panel is overlapped. To realize the uniformity of luminance, brightness of back lamps for illuminating the instrument panel is adjusted or a filter having an adequate transparency is used. The combined display panel may be also made by combining a non-transparent display panel with a conventional instrument panel. A filter may be used in this case to attain an overall uniform luminance on the combined display panel.