IP Library Granted Patent US 7,772,970
Granted Patent B2
US 7,772,970 · App. 11/783,111 · Granted Aug 10, 2010

Vehicle display device

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 7,772,970
App. No.
11/783,111
Granted
Aug 10, 2010
Kind
B2
Abstract

The present invention provides a vehicle display device which can display fuel consumption information of a vehicle in a useful and optimum mode for a driver. A meter_EUC calculates an instantaneous fuel consumption of a vehicle based on a mileage and a fuel injection quantity within a set time, calculates an average fuel consumption of the vehicle based on respective cumulative values of the mileage and the fuel injection quantity repeatedly calculated for every set time, and displays the deviation of the instantaneous fuel consumption with respect to the average fuel consumption as fuel consumption information on a fuel consumption meter. The display on the fuel consumption meter is performed by swinging a pointer with respect to a neutral position. When the deviation takes a positive value, the pointer is swung in the pulse direction with a swinging width corresponding to the deviation quantity, while when the deviation takes a negative value, the pointer is swung in the minus direction with a swinging width corresponding to the deviation quantity.

Claims (33)

1. A vehicle display device comprising:

an instantaneous fuel consumption calculation unit for calculating an instantaneous fuel consumption of a vehicle based on a mileage and a fuel injection quantity within a preset set time;

an average fuel consumption calculation unit for calculating an average fuel consumption of the vehicle based on a cumulative value of the mileage and a cumulative value of the fuel injection quantity;

a display unit comprising a pointer type meter for displaying a deviation of the instantaneous fuel consumption with respect to the average fuel consumption as a fuel consumption information based on a swinging of a pointer with respect to a neutral position; and

a display control unit for controlling said display unit so as to display the fuel consumption information by swinging the pointer in a plus direction set on one side of the neutral position with a swinging width corresponding to a deviation quantity when the deviation comprises a positive value, and swinging the pointer in a minus direction set on another side of the neutral position with a swinging width corresponding to the deviation quantity when the deviation comprises a negative value,

wherein said average fuel consumption calculation unit calculates a value which is obtained by leveling an average fuel consumption which is directly calculated based on the cumulative value of the mileage and the cumulative value of the fuel injection quantity by weighted average calculation by using a past average fuel consumption as a final average fuel consumption, and

wherein a weighting coefficient used in the weighted average calculation is a value which changes the deviation between the average fuel consumption and the instantaneous fuel consumption with respect to an accelerator operation of a driver in a preset region of the accelerator operation.

2. The vehicle display device according to claim 1 , wherein regions in which the pointer swings are displayed with colors different from each other between the plus side and the minus side with respect to the neutral position.

3. The vehicle display device according to claim 1 , wherein said display unit is arranged on a speed meter.

4. The vehicle display device according to claim 1 , wherein the specified region is a region which indicates the deviation calculated corresponding to at least an acceleration manipulation quantity in which the driver actually feels that the acceleration manipulation is performed and the deviation with which the average fuel consumption is hardly changed with respect to the instantaneous fuel consumption.

5. The vehicle display device according to claim 4 , wherein the display control unit sets a full scale of the display unit such that the specified region occupies approximately ⅕ of the whole display means.

6. The vehicle display device according to claim 5 , wherein the display control unit sets the full scale of the display unit such that the region which indicates the deviation when the average fuel consumption is greatly changed with respect to the instantaneous fuel consumption occupies approximately ¼ of the whole display unit respectively on the plus side and the minus side with respect to the neutral position of the display means which constitutes a 0 point.

7. The vehicle display device according to claim 1 , wherein the vehicle display device is mounted on a vehicle which is capable of changing over a drive force characteristic of a power unit into a plurality of modes, and

wherein the average fuel consumption calculation unit performs the weighted average calculation using weighting coefficients which differ for respective modes.

8. The vehicle display device according to claim 7 , wherein the values of the weighting coefficient is such that when the mode of the drive force characteristic has greater responsiveness with respect to the accelerator operation of the driver, the mode takes a relatively greater value than an other mode.

9. The vehicle display device according to claim 7 , wherein the power unit controls a drive force characteristic of an engine control device.

10. The vehicle display device according to claim 1 , wherein the average fuel consumption value calculation unit resets the cumulative values of the mileage and the fuel injection quantity interlockingly with a reset manipulation of a trip meter by a driver.

11. The vehicle display device according to claim 10 , wherein the average fuel consumption calculation unit calculates plural sets of combinations of the cumulative value of the mileage and the cumulative value of the fuel injection quantity using different reset timings as starting points and obtains the average fuel consumption for every set, and

wherein the display control means obtains the deviation with the instantaneous fuel consumption using the average fuel consumption which the driver selects out of the plurality of average fuel consumptions.

12. The vehicle display device according to claim 1 , wherein the display control unit exponentially increases a change quantity of a control indication value when the deviation is displayed on the display unit as fuel consumption information along with an increase of the deviation quantity.

13. The vehicle display device according to claim 12 , wherein the vehicle display device is mounted on the vehicle capable of changing over a drive force characteristic of a power unit into a plurality of modes, and

wherein the display control unit makes a tracking characteristic with respect to a target value of swinging of the pointer different for every mode.

14. The vehicle display device according to claim 1 , wherein the deviation quantity comprises a scaled-deviation quantity which is scaled by a factor.

15. The vehicle display device according to claim 1 , wherein the fuel injection quantity is determined based on a fuel injection pulse time.

16. The vehicle display device according to claim 1 , wherein the instantaneous fuel consumption comprises a ratio of distance over fuel injection quantity.

17. The vehicle display device according to claim 1 , wherein the neutral position indicates the average fuel consumption.

18. The vehicle display device according to claim 1 , wherein the deviation is a difference between the instantaneous fuel consumption and the average fuel consumption.

19. A vehicle display device comprising:

a fuel consumption calculation unit for calculating a fuel consumption of a vehicle based on a ratio of a distance traveled and a fuel injection quantity, within a preset set time;

an average fuel consumption calculation unit for calculating an average fuel consumption of the vehicle based on a ratio of a cumulative value of the distance traveled and the cumulative value of the fuel injection quantity; and

a display unit comprising a pointer type meter for displaying a deviation of the fuel consumption with respect to the average fuel consumption as a fuel consumption information based on a swinging of a pointer with respect to a neutral position,

wherein said average fuel consumption calculation unit calculates a value which is obtained by leveling an average fuel consumption which is directly calculated based on the cumulative value of the distance traveled and the cumulative value of the fuel injection quantity by weighted average calculation by using a past average fuel consumption as a final average fuel consumption, and

wherein a weighting coefficient used in the weighted average calculation is a value which changes the deviation between the average fuel consumption and the fuel con in ion with respect to an accelerator operation of a driver in a preset region of the accelerator operation.

Assignments (3)
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded May 12, 2017
From: FUJI JUKOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
To: SUBARU CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 042624/0886 →
CHANGE OF ADDRESS Recorded Oct 15, 2014
From: FUJI JUKOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
To: FUJI JUKOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Reel/Frame 033989/0220 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jul 2, 2007
From: MASUDA, TOSHIO; YAMAMOTO, KENICHI; HIJIKATA, KENJI; SATOMURA, SATOSHI; OISHI, HIROSHI; SUNAGUCHI, TOYOHIDE; IWAKAMI, YOSHIO; HOMMA, MUNENORI; ATAKE, ATSUSHI; KANEDA, KOUJI; FUKUDA, TATSURU; YUKI, MINORU; USHIKI, MASAYUKI; KOBAYASHI, TSUYOSHI; MOTOI, MASAHITO; SHIBATA, NAOKI; OGIWARA, HIROSHI; IGARASHI, KATSUMASA; SHINOZUKA, JUNZO; NAKAMURA, AKIHISA
To: FUJI JUKOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Reel/Frame 019536/0137 →