Method and apparatus for displaying a display element

Abstract

A method for displaying a display element on at least one vehicle-side display device of a vehicle includes: transmitting, from the vehicle to a terminal via a data link, information about a size of the vehicle-side display device; providing, by the terminal, data for displaying the display element, as a function of the transmitted information about the size of the display device; and transmitting, from the terminal to the vehicle via the data link, the data for displaying the display element.

Claims

1. A method for displaying a display element on at least one vehicle-side display device of a vehicle, the method comprising: transmitting, from the vehicle to a terminal via a data link, information about a size of the vehicle-side display device; assigning, by the terminal, a predetermined density-independent pixel number to the display element; determining, by the terminal, an absolute pixel number of the display element as a function of the density-independent pixel number, a reference scaling quantity, and a resolution/size ratio, wherein the resolution/size ratio is a ratio between a resolution of a terminal-side display device and the size of the vehicle-side display device; providing, by the terminal, data for displaying the display element, as a function of the absolute pixel number of the display element; and transmitting, from the terminal to the vehicle via the data link, the data for displaying the display element.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein in the event a ratio of the width to the height of the terminal-side display device is less than a ratio of the width to the height of the vehicle-side display device, the resolution/size ratio is determined as a ratio between a vertical resolution of the terminal-side display device and the height of the vehicle-side display device.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein in the event a ratio of the width to the height of the terminal-side display device is no less than a ratio of the width to the height of the vehicle-side display device, the resolution/size ratio is determined as a ratio between a horizontal resolution of the terminal-side display device and the width of the vehicle-side display device.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the terminal is a mobile terminal.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the display element is displayed at the same time on a terminal-side display device and on the vehicle-side display device.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the display element is displayed on the terminal-side display device with the absolute pixel number of the display element to be displayed on the vehicle-side display device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the absolute pixel number is performed upon a detection that the terminal is connected to the vehicle-side display device.

8. A system for displaying a display element, comprising: at least one vehicle-side display device of a vehicle, wherein the display element is displayed on the vehicle-side display device; and at least one terminal providing data for displaying the display element; wherein: the terminal is operatively linked to the vehicle via a data link; information about a size of the vehicle-side display device is transmitted from the vehicle to the terminal; a predetermined density-independent pixel number is assigned by the terminal to the display element; an absolute pixel number of the display element is determined by the terminal as a function of the density-independent pixel number, a reference scaling quantity, and a resolution/size ratio, the resolution/size ratio being a ratio between a resolution of a terminal-side display device and the size of the vehicle-side display device; the data for displaying the display element are provided by the terminal as a function of the absolute pixel number of the display element; and the data for displaying the display element are transmitted from the terminal to the vehicle for displaying the display element.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

(1) FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of an apparatus according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(2) FIG. 1 shows schematically a block diagram of an apparatus 1 for displaying a display element 2 on a vehicle-side display device 3. To that end, a vehicle 4 includes vehicle-side display device 3, a vehicle-side control device 5 and a vehicle-side transmitting and receiving device 6

(3) Also shown is a terminal 7. Terminal 7 includes a terminal-side display device 8, a terminal-side control device 9 and a terminal-side transmitting and receiving device 10.

(4) Vehicle-side control device 5 generates signals for controlling vehicle-side display device 3, which lead, among other things, to the display of display element 2.

(5) Correspondingly, terminal-side control device 9 generates signals for controlling terminal-side display device 8.

(6) It is also shown that terminal 7 and vehicle 4 are connected via a wireless link 11 which, for example, may take the form of what is referred to as a MirrorLink connection.

(7) An application designer is able to develop an application, e.g., in the form of a program, for the operating system of terminal 7. In so doing, he is also able to plan a display of display elements to be displayed during the application. For example, by the use of a density-independent pixel number, he is able to encode a size, particularly a display size, of the display elements to be displayed, a predetermined density-independent pixel number, e.g., in the horizontal and vertical image direction, being assigned to a display element. Depending on the resolution of terminal-side display device 8, control device 9 may then determine, as a function of the density-independent pixel number, an absolute pixel number of the display element to be displayed on terminal-side display device 8.

(8) To carry out the method of the present invention, terminal 7 and vehicle 4 may be connected via data link 11. To that end, both terminal-side control device 9 with terminal-side transmitting and receiving device 10, as well as vehicle-side control device 5 with vehicle-side transmitting and receiving device 6 may be connected. Moreover, it may be assumed that terminal-side display device 8 and vehicle-side display device 3 have different resolutions and aspect ratios.

(9) Terminal 7 is able to detect that a vehicle 4 having a vehicle-side display device 3 is connected in terms of data transmission technology to terminal 7. After that, vehicle 4 is able to transmit information concerning a physical size of vehicle-side display device 3, especially concerning a width and a height, to terminal 7. For example, this may be accomplished via a mechanism which is specified in the MirrorLink connection previously explained. This may take place upon request of terminal 7, for instance. The request may be made, for example, if and when the connection of terminal 7 to vehicle 4 is detected.

(10) After receipt of this size information, control device 9 of terminal 7 is able to calculate an absolute pixel number of display element 2 to be displayed on vehicle-side display device 3, as a function of the size, the density-independent pixel number, a reference scaling quantity and a resolution of terminal-side display device 8. Based on this calculated absolute pixel number, data for displaying display element 2 on vehicle-side display device 3 may then be generated by terminal-side control device 9 and transmitted via data link 11 to vehicle 4. As a function of the transmitted data, vehicle-side control device 5 controls display device 3 in such a way that display element 2 is displayed with the absolute pixel number calculated on the terminal side. At the same time, terminal-side control device 9 may also control terminal-side display device 8 in such a way that display element 2 is displayed there with the absolute pixel number adapted to vehicle-side display device 3.

(11) A projection of display element 2 is thus adapted to the size of vehicle-side display device 3, and display element 2 has an appropriate size.

(12) Among other advantages, the present invention advantageously aids an application designer in the development of application graphics elements which are intended to be displayed on the remote display device, i.e., display devices not on the terminal side, and are to be displayed there with a desired size. In this context, the absolute pixel number for the display on such display devices is calculated by terminal 7, particularly an operating system of terminal 7. Preferably, the calculation is not carried out until terminal 7 is connected to a further device which has the display device.