LRUs and related night vision display harmonization methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11514797-B2
Application number	US-201916563660-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 6, 2019
Priority date	Jun 12, 2019
Publication date	Nov 29, 2022
Grant date	Nov 29, 2022

Abstract

Methods, devices and systems are provided for harmonizing output display characteristics of one component with those of other components onboard a vehicle, such as an aircraft. A line-replaceable unit (LRU) suitable includes a display driver to be coupled to a display command bus, a data storage element to maintain calibration information for the display driver, and a control module coupled to the display driver and the data storage element to identify a current state of an input command signal from the display command bus, identify an adjustment for the display driver based on the calibration information using the current state of the input command signal, and automatically operate the display driver in accordance with the adjustment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of harmonizing a display characteristic of a line-replaceable unit (LRU) onboard a vehicle with other components onboard the vehicle coupled to a common command bus, the LRU comprising a display element and a display driver coupled between the common command bus and the display element, the method comprising:
obtaining adjustments to a relationship between one or more electrical characteristics of an output dimming command relative to the one or more electrical characteristics of a display command input from the common command bus to achieve a desired output display characteristic of the display element at different states of the display command input, resulting in a plurality of data points maintaining associations between a respective adjustment and a respective state for the display command input;
determining calibration information for a range of the display command input based on relationships between the respective adjustments and the respective different states for the display command input using the plurality of data points;
maintaining the calibration information in a data storage element of the LRU coupled to a control module of the LRU; and
automatically adjusting, by the control module, operation of the display driver of the LRU to translate a subsequent state of the display command input to the LRU into a corresponding output dimming command provided to the display element in accordance with a subset of the calibration information associated with the subsequent state of the display command input.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the output display characteristic comprises at least one of a brightness, a luminance, and a spectral characteristic.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the calibration information comprises performing a curve fitting technique on the plurality of data points to obtain respective adjustments to the display driver for respective states of the display command input throughout the range of the display command input.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising automatically identifying the curve fitting technique based on the plurality of data points.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the common command bus comprises a dimming command bus.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the calibration information harmonizes the display characteristic of the LRU onboard the vehicle with the other components for purposes of night vision operation.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting the calibration information to a second LRU onboard another vehicle, wherein a second control module of the second LRU automatically adjusts operation of a second display driver of the second LRU in accordance with the calibration information obtained from the LRU.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transferring the calibration information to a second data storage element of a second LRU onboard another vehicle, wherein a second control module of the second LRU automatically adjusts operation of a second display driver of the second LRU in accordance with the calibration information obtained from the LRU.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein automatically adjusting operation of the display driver comprises automatically increasing or decreasing a gain of the display driver of the LRU to produce a corresponding increase or decrease in the corresponding output dimming command for the subsequent state of the display command input to the LRU.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein automatically adjusting operation of the display driver of the LRU comprises automatically increasing or decreasing display driver gain at different input command states in real-time as a user adjusts the display command input.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein automatically adjusting operation of the display driver of the LRU comprises automatically adjusting display driver gain at different input command states in a quadratic, polynomial or nonlinear manner as a user adjusts the display command input throughout a range of the display command input.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein automatically adjusting operation of the display driver of the LRU comprises increasing or decreasing a gain provided by the display driver to produce a corresponding increase or decrease in a voltage level of an output dimming command signal provided to the display element for a given voltage level of an input dimming command signal to thereby increase or decrease a brightness of the display element for that state of the input dimming command signal.

13. A line-replaceable unit (LRU) suitable for use in a vehicle, the LRU comprising:
a display driver to be coupled to a display command bus;
a data storage element to maintain calibration information for the display driver; and
a control module coupled to the display driver and the data storage element to identify a current state of an input command signal from the display command bus, identify an adjustment to a relationship between one or more electrical characteristics of an output dimming command from the display driver relative to the one or more electrical characteristics of the input command signal to the display driver based on the calibration information using the current state of the input command signal, and automatically operate the display driver in accordance with the adjustment to translate the current state of the input command signal into the output dimming command to be provided to a display element in accordance with a subset of the calibration information associated with the current state of the input command signal.

14. The LRU of claim 13 , wherein the adjustment adjusts or alters the one or more electrical characteristics of the output dimming command provided to the display element relative to the one or more electrical characteristics of the input command signal.

15. The LRU of claim 14 , wherein the display command bus comprises a dimming command bus.

16. The LRU of claim 13 , wherein the display command bus comprises a dimming command bus.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when read and executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
obtain adjustments to a relationship between one or more electrical characteristics of an output dimming command relative to the one or more electrical characteristics of a display command input from a common command bus coupled to a line-replaceable unit (LRU) to achieve a desired output display characteristic of a display element of the LRU at different states of the display command input from the common command bus, resulting in a plurality of data points maintaining associations between a respective adjustment and a respective state for the display command input;
determine calibration information for a range of the display command input based on relationships between the respective adjustments and the respective different states for the display command input using the plurality of data points;
maintain the calibration information in a data storage element of the LRU coupled to a control module of the LRU; and
automatically adjust, by the control module of the LRU, operation of a display driver of the LRU to translate a subsequent state of the display command input to the LRU into a corresponding output dimming command provided to the display element in accordance with a subset of the calibration information associated with the subsequent state of the display command input, wherein the display driver is coupled between the common command bus and the display element.

Assignees

• Honeywell Int Inc

Inventors

• Poulose Ezekiel
• Saxena Sunit
• Sure Anita

Classifications

• G01S13/933

  of aircraft or spacecraft · CPC title

• G11C7/1093

  Input synchronization · CPC title

• G02B27/01

  Head-up displays · CPC title

• G02B2027/0118

  comprising devices for improving the contrast of the display / brillance control visibility · CPC title

• G01C23/00

  Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration · CPC title