Digital dash

[Frederic Breitwieser]

> most of the aircraft HUD stuff i surfed looked like the actual gauges were remoted with mirrors. doesn't make sense to me, but a plasma(?) display might not wash out so bad. do they even make them anymore?

Plasma displays have changed since the days of Toshiba and Compaq
laptops that had them.  Or luggables I should say.  The new Phillips
wall-mounted 72" wide Plasma TV is an example of the newer technology. 
>From the research I've done over the last six months, the older style
monochromatic (or grayscale) plasma displays are no longer made - now
that LCD displays have come down in price below what the plasma displays
were.  Also, at that threshold in time, when the switch was made (1989,
1990 or thereabouts), color LCD's were becoming affordable.  Plasma
displays were expensive, and had already reached their lowest price
point.

My problem with a laptop display of any sort is such that its too big,
and won't fit between the steering column and the top of the dash, which
in my mid-engine car design, will be about six inches, tops (plus the
thickness of the dash, I'm talking usable space here).  However,
something that occured to me this evening, after reading several
messages, is why not stick the display in the dash, but flat on its
back, facing up.  Then, place a mirror in front of it, angled forward,
so the display is reflected backwards to the driver.  Put a polarized
filter/acrylic/glass plate in front of the mirror, parallel to the
driver's eyes, keeping the unpolarized light out, hence the glare.  This
would make for a nice display.  of course, a standard VGA color LCD
display would look "squashed" and be a upside down image (thanks to the
mirror), but nothing a little clever programming couldn't resolve. 
Then, one could use a much larger display, and shove more gauges on
there.  If the ratio of display to mirror was 1:2, you'd have to draw a
twice has high oval (compared to its width) to make it appear "round" in
the mirror, and draw it upside down.

I'll have to experiment with this, I have an old laptop with a 1024x768
color display I could use.  Would be a lot easier than fangling up a
quad NTSC VGA card :)


-- 

Frederic Breitwieser
Xephic Technology
769 Sylvan Ave #9
Bridgeport CT 06606

Tele: (203) 372-2707
 Fax: (603) 372-1147
Web: http://xephic.dynip.com/
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