Kindle as a Heads Up Display

[knc1]

Ah, another idea that I may run out of time to complete.
But I will throw it out here along with what information I have to date.

- - - - -

I have always been interested in having a "heads up display" in my car - I thought it could be useful (for ???).

Recently I replaced my 30+ year old ride with a more modern (8 year old) version.
Gone are many of the mechanical things, now taken place by computerized controls.
(By some, non-authoritative sources, at least 27 embedded computer systems in this model (HCL) car. Hacker City Ltd.)
All of them networked (in fact, three (3) networks of different speed).

Wheee .....
Something to display (I only had to wait a generation or two. ).

First thing first - can I use a Kindle e-ink (reflective) display?

This part is easy to try out - buy a commercial piece of "1/2 silvered" mirror -
Place Kindle horizontal -
Place mirror at 45 degree angle -
Look through it.

Duh, even with my lack of hobby time, I should be able to find time to do that. (famous last words).

There are a few known problems lurking in this idea -

In the simplest physical configuration, the Kindle and mirror would have to sit on top of the dashboard.
Perhaps the hottest possible place in a car to place an electronic device - I expect the Kindle to cook (perhaps even melt) when mid-summer arrives here.

So ok, I will only put it in place when the interior of the car is cool enough for the Kindle to survive.

So for my first test of this bright idea -

Can the Kindle reflective display be seen clearly enough during the day (being lit only by ambient light through the windshield) ?

Can the Kindle's front lighted models produce a visible display during hours of darkness ?

- - - - -

I ordered a 5x7 inch sheet of beam splitting glass to find out.
(At about $1 per square inch - ouch)

Website link is mentioned in the tech. document attached below.
Yes - they ship internationally.

[loco]

answers:

1. yes - perfectly even in direct sunligt as well as ambient light
2. yes,

[knc1]

Originally Posted by loco

answers:

1. yes - perfectly even in direct sunligt as well as ambient light
2. yes,

That is my first guess also.
But I am not sure if the "simple way" will run afoul of contrast problems under certain lighting conditions.(*)

So I still feel it is worth a trial before spending a lot of time and/or money on the project.

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(*) Aircraft "heads up" displays are driven by a light projection (rather than light reflection) display.
A very high intensity light projection display (also a very expensive display).

So the possibility of using a $49.95 Kindle, even if it takes a zillion compromises, might be worth doing.

Ah, the mirror sheet . . . .
Shipped, expected by next Monday.

[Jan Steinman]

How are you at reading right-to-left and backward? :-)

Unless you're gonna hack the kindle to display reversed, learning to "read Galileo" might be a challenge.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Jan Steinman

How are you at reading right-to-left and backward? :-)

Unless you're gonna hack the kindle to display reversed, learning to "read Galileo" might be a challenge.

.desu egaugnal eht no sdneped lla tI

I don't intend to use it as an e-book reader, instead to display information from the vehicle that I would like to see without looking away from the road.

Which means a specialized information display, with or without the mirror writing.

- - - - -

On a personal note (which rarely appears in a public discussion forum) . . . . .

Have you seen any of those movies based on the "old times" of military operations?
Where the CIC (Combat Information Center) has those transparent status boards with someone updating the information from the back side, while it is being read from the front?
Yup, that person doing the updating is "Galileo writing".

Been there, done that and bet I can write (or "Draftsman letter") English faster than Galileo could Latin.

(The above RTL would be easier to read if this editor had a font with the letter shapes mirrored - )

[badgoodDeb]

Is there a reason you can't just prop the Kindle up vertically? I mean, somewhere lower, where you don't need to see THROUGH it. Though I guess that's the whole point of a "heads up" display, is to have it in your view-field but not interrupt your view, so you want to see through it. So, probably never mind my question.

But still --- mounting a kindle vertically, somewhere lower, sounds easier! It just wouldn't be a "heads up" thing.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Is there a reason you can't just prop the Kindle up vertically? I mean, somewhere lower, where you don't need to see THROUGH it. Though I guess that's the whole point of a "heads up" display, is to have it in your view-field but not interrupt your view, so you want to see through it. So, probably never mind my question.

But still --- mounting a kindle vertically, somewhere lower, sounds easier! It just wouldn't be a "heads up" thing.

I have one of those, its called a driver's instrument cluster.

Yes, the point is to be able to see through it without losing sight of the road.

Some makes/models do have a "heads up" display, mine doesn't. Nothing really new there.

My idea (or questions at the moment) is wondering if a Kindle's e-ink display could be used.

[knc1]

[quoted spam post deleted by moderator]


Good or bad, I'll try to post pictures once I have the mirror on-hand.

[eschwartz]

@knc1 -- the 1-pixel image spammer strikes again, sorry.

I removed the post and hopefully a higher-level mod will soon deal with the spammer permanently, i.e. the other posts in forums I don't moderate.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

@knc1 -- the 1-pixel image spammer strikes again, sorry.

I removed the post and hopefully a higher-level mod will soon deal with the spammer permanently, i.e. the other posts in forums I don't moderate.

Is it really a person?
Or is it part of one of the advertisement deals this site has (as view counting).

I can't tell, I have all advertisements used on this site blocked (which may also be why I never saw the 1-pixel part of the post).

[eschwartz]

It is an actual poster. One of several types of spam, which includes an [IMG]link-to-1-pixel-image[/IMG] -- you wouldn't see it because it's like, really small and stuff.
And I bet you ignored the actual text in your quote box -- 'cause you already read it the first time, so why bother again? Except for the sneaky spam... Which I now know to check for.

Quite annoying, I've seen it pop up in various places several times a month.

[aditya3098]

For reading serial data, rather than using usb-serials, I would recommend buying an arduino mega or due and using softwareserial and report the data to the kindle using the hardware serial ports.

[aditya3098]

By networks, I guess you mean RS485 systems, probably a couple of PICs or AVRs. Most certainly a couple of ARMs, and probably an 8051

[knc1]

Originally Posted by aditya3098

By networks, I guess you mean RS485 systems, probably a couple of PICs or AVRs. Most certainly a couple of ARMs, and probably an 8051

I mean the "GMLAN" version of CAN:
http://sine.ni.com/np/app/main/p/ap/...:17/fmid/2834/
The above is an "overview" page on the site of a hardware vendor, but a decent (if 10 years old) overview.

"CAN" has been around 30 years now, not the 20 years mentioned in the overview.

A bit of trivia on GMLAN:
The final production year of the GM Corvette before they started using CAN, back in the "good old days" when electrical things where interconnected by individual copper wires -
The Corvette, a physically small car, used 5 miles of copper wire weighing 400 pounds.

Something had to be done - there is a limited amount of copper in the world.

A lot of copper is buried or strung about on poles as communications wire. (Which is still economically impractical to "mine", but that day is coming.)
But vehicles of all sorts where also a large part of the world demand on copper resources and copper was becoming a significant cost of each vehicle.

- - - - -

And yes, some of the early CAN implementations **did** use simple UARTS and other such serial hardware.

But the physical layer of CAN is not limited to any one (or a few) implementations, and things have evolved from the days when that sort of serial networking was used.

- - - - -

The 5x7 inch piece of glass is on the truck, due to arrive here later today (about 12 hours).
Meanwhile, it is fun to kick this idea around (can a cheap reflective display be used in practice).

[stangri]

Originally Posted by knc1

Duh, even with my lack of hobby time, I should be able to find time to do that. (famous last words).

I believe it's actually "How hard can it be?"

So anything came out of this project yet? I'm curious to see the see-thru mirror you've ordered.

I don't have a spare kindle for this project, but I do have a spare Android phone, the double-reflection of the multi-pane windshield prevents me from using it tho.