Graphics Design Of A Flexible Format Dot Matrix Electronic Instrument Cluster
Richard C. Berry · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1988
A flexible format dot matrix electronic instrument cluster (EIC) permits display graphics redesign without hardware changes. The main objective of this design is to illustrate the flexibility of the dot matrix format by presentation of three radically different graphics themes of the same driver information. Some existing production hardware was utilized to illustrate the feasibility of the concept and to reduce the development time. A CAE Instrumentation Simulation System provides the capability for EIC graphics design, alteration, and evaluation prior to actual implementation. The system consists of a high performance graphics workstation equipped with a software paint system and an i age digitizer. Existing automotive display graphics may be loaded into the system through a scanning CCD camera where they may then be colored, positioned, or scaled for use with new designs. A dot matrix graphics software subroutine package enables fast display updates of critical information. Two key techniques developed for the dot matrix EIC application include software double buffering of the displayed images and high