Pico projector and control method therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11054726-B2
Application number	US-202016885256-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 27, 2020
Priority date	May 29, 2019
Publication date	Jul 6, 2021
Grant date	Jul 6, 2021

Abstract

A pico projector and a control method of the pico projector are provided. The pico projector is installed on a door of a vehicle and includes a light source, a DMD, a projection lens, a power supply unit, and a processing circuit. The processing circuit receives a shutdown warning signal, transmits a parking signal to the DMD to perform a parking operation on the DMD, and notifies the power supply unit of cutting off a first power provided to the DMD after a predetermined time interval from transmitting the parking signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A pico projector, installed on a door of a vehicle and comprising:
a light source, configured to provide an illumination beam,
a digital micromirror device, disposed on a propagation path of the illumination beam and configured to convert the illumination beam to an image beam,
a projection lens, disposed on a propagation path of the image beam and configured to project the image beam to the outside of the pico projector,
a power supply unit, coupled to the light source and the digital micromirror device, and
a processing circuit, coupled to the power supply unit and the digital micromirror device, wherein the processing circuit receives a shutdown warning signal, transmits a parking signal to the digital micromirror device to perform a parking operation on the digital micromirror device, and notifies the power supply unit of cutting off a first power supplied to the digital micromirror device after a predetermined time interval from transmitting the parking signal.

2. The pico projector according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined time interval is greater than one millisecond.

3. The pico projector according to claim 1 , wherein after the processing circuit receives the shutdown warning signal, the power supply unit is notified of cutting off a second power supplied to the light source.

4. The pico projector according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a transducer, coupled to the processing circuit and the power supply unit, wherein when the transducer senses that the door of the vehicle is closing, the transducer transmits the shutdown warning signal to the processing circuit.

5. The pico projector according to claim 4 , wherein after the processing circuit receives the shutdown warning signal, the power supply unit is notified of cutting off a third power supplied to the transducer.

6. The pico projector according to claim 4 , the transducer comprising at least one of a distance transducer and an ambient light transducer.

7. The pico projector according to claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit comprises a voltage detecting circuit configured to detect an input voltage of the power supply unit, and when a voltage attenuation of the input voltage is greater than a predetermined percentage, the voltage detecting circuit transmits the shutdown warning signal to the processing circuit.

8. The pico projector according to claim 1 , the vehicle having a central control system configured to issue the shutdown warning signal to the processing circuit after the door of the vehicle is closed.

9. The pico projector according to claim 8 , wherein the central control system supplies an input voltage to the power supply unit, and after issuing the shutdown warning signal, the central control system cuts off the input voltage supplied to the power supply unit after the predetermined time interval.

10. The pico projector according to claim 1 , wherein the power supply unit receives an input voltage and outputs a plurality of output voltages, a first capacitor is set corresponding to the input voltage, and at least one second capacitor is set corresponding to the plurality of output voltages.

11. A control method for a pico projector, the pico projector being installed on a door of a vehicle and comprising a light source, a digital micromirror device, a projection lens, a power supply unit, and a processing circuit, the power supply unit being coupled to the light source, the digital micromirror device, and the processing circuit, the processing circuit being coupled to the digital micromirror device, the control method comprising:
providing an illumination beam by the light source;
converting the illumination beam to an image beam by the digital micromirror device disposed on a propagation path of the illumination beam;
projecting the image beam to the outside of the pico projector by the projection lens disposed on a propagation path of the image beam; and
receiving a shutdown warning signal by the processing circuit, transmitting a parking signal to the digital micromirror device to perform a parking operation on the digital micromirror device, and notifying the power supply unit of cutting off a first power supplied to the digital micromirror device after a predetermined time interval from transmitting the parking signal.

12. The control method according to claim 11 , wherein the predetermined time interval is greater than one millisecond.

13. The control method according to claim 11 , further comprising: after the processing circuit receives the shutdown warning signal, notifying the power supply unit of cutting off a second power supplied to the light source.

14. The control method according to claim 11 , further comprising: a transducer coupled to the processing circuit and the power supply unit, the control method further comprising: transmitting the shutdown warning signal to the processing circuit by the transducer when the transducer senses that the door of the vehicle is closing.

15. The control method according to claim 14 , further comprising: notifying the power supply unit of cutting off a third power supplied to the transducer after the processing circuit receives the shutdown warning signal.

16. The control method according to claim 11 , wherein the processing circuit comprises a voltage detecting circuit configured to detect an input voltage of the power supply unit, and when a voltage attenuation of the input voltage is greater than a predetermined percentage, the voltage detecting circuit transmits the shutdown warning signal to the processing circuit.

17. The control method according to claim 11 , wherein the vehicle has a central control system configured to issue the shutdown warning signal to the processing circuit after the door of the vehicle is closed.

18. The control method according to claim 17 , further comprising: supplying an input voltage to the power supply unit by the central control system, and after issuing the shutdown warning signal, cutting off the input voltage supplied to the power supply unit after the predetermined time interval.

19. The control method according to claim 11 , further comprising: receiving an input voltage and outputting a plurality of output voltages by the power supply unit, wherein a first capacitor is set corresponding to the input voltage, and at least one second capacitor is set corresponding to the plurality of output voltages.

Assignees

• Coretronic Corp

Inventors

• Miao Yun-Lin

Classifications

• B60Q1/324

  for signalling that a door is open or intended to be opened · CPC title

• G03B21/14 Primary

  Details · CPC title

• G03B21/008 Primary

  using micromirror devices · CPC title

• B60Q2400/50

  Projected symbol or information, e.g. onto the road or car body · CPC title

• F21S41/141

  Light emitting diodes [LED] · CPC title