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:
Aug. 09, 2016
Filed:
May. 31, 2013
Continental Automotive Systems, Inc., Auburn Hills, MI (US);
James R Snider, Kildeer, IL (US);
Continental Automotive Systems, Inc., Auburn Hills, MI (US);
Abstract
A user-configurable steering column is made from steering column-mounted switches, each of which is coupled to a computer, which is also coupled to various different driver circuits, each of which is configured to control the operation of a corresponding vehicle accessory device, such as head lamps, a wiper motor or the vehicle's cruise control. A tactile-sensitive display device located in either a head unit, smartphone inside the vehicle, or in a dedicated, dash board-mounted device, provides a menu of assignable switches and user-controllable devices, or it displays icons representing the switches and accessories. A driver assigns a switch to a particular accessory by selecting icons. The computer thereafter reads the switches' states and sends corresponding control signals to the drivers for the various devices that were mapped to the switches. Multiple different programmed configurations can be stored in a memory device and selected by a user using the tactile-sensitive display device.