Interior applications block diagrams
The car interior becomes the “third living space” – comfort and human-centric applications become more and more important. A large variety of advanced lighting and sensing product enables new design approaches and new features, while at the same time providing cost-effective solutions for today’s vehicle interior needs.
Interior, Cockpit, and HMI
The interior of the vehicle becomes the “third living space” – our lighting and sensing products help enabling this transition. The following interior, cockpit, and HMI block diagram shows several main interior applications: smart surface and HMI for interaction with the driver and passengers, ambient lighting, and in-cabin sensing for enhanced safety, e.g. to support autonomous driving functions.
Dynamic Ambient Lighting Color
Color dynamic ambient lighting is enabled by our Open System Protocol (OSP) light bus. Thanks to the integrated OSP driver of our intelligent RGB-LEDs, large-scale color-accurate dynamic lighting experiences can be orchestrated without the need for local microprocessors. Our stand-alone OSP LED drivers allow to connect standard LEDs, like different package types of RGB LEDs, single-color, or white LEDs to OSP. Longer distances within the vehicle can be bridged by using CAN transceivers to transmit OSP data over a CAN physical layer wiring. In addition, OSP and our stand-alone LED drivers integrate I²C devices into the light bus network, enabling distributed sensor and actuator architectures, e.g. for smart surfaces, light, position, or temperature sensing.
Smart Surfaces, Distributed Human-Machine-Interfaces and Sensing
In addition to controlling hundreds of intelligent RGB LEDs, our OSP light bus also enables the integration of various sensors and actuators, based on the industry standard I²C interface, thanks to our stand-alone OSP LED drivers with I²C bridge functionality. Similar to dynamic ambient lighting, CAN physical layer connections can be used to transport OSP data over longer distances in the vehicle with a high degree of robustness. For localized Smart Surface applications powered by a separate microcontroller, like center consoles or other panels, ams OSRAM provides a large selection of functional lighting devices, as well as ambient light and proximity sensors, position sensors, touch sensors, and emitters for display backlighting. The following block diagram describes the implementation of Smart Surfaces, as well as distributed HMI and sensing functions.
Human-Machine-Interfaces
In contrast to distributed HMI applications using the OSP light bus, localized HMI and Smart Surface applications are powered by a dedicated microcontroller. ams OSRAM provides a variety of light emitters and sensors for these applications. White or color LEDs can be used for decorative or functional lighting, e.g. for buttons or dials. Special white LEDs are available for display backlighting. For touch, proximity, ambient light and position sensing, we offer a large portfolio of automotive-qualified parts. This block diagram provides an overview of localized HMI functions and how ams OSRAM components can enable a variety of lighting and sensing functions.
In-Cabin Sensing
In-cabin sensing is becoming increasingly important in today’s vehicles for safety, but also comfort functions. In-cabin sensing supports autonomous driving functions by ensuring the attention of the driver while the vehicle is in a driving assistance or autonomous driving mode. Additional functions enabled by in-cabin sensing include e.g. driver drowsiness monitoring or child-left-behind detection. The following block diagram provides an overview of these major in-cabin sensing function blocks.