Flat-panel LCD Technology Opens Up Gauges

Lots of companies have tried digital dashboards with varying results. GM’s Corvette dashboards of the mid ’80s spring to mind as a particularly … interesting … idea.  But Sharp has come up with a different take – an LCD screen that promises excellent resolution and the ability to display more than just a speedometer/tachometer/gas gauge.

The display has 1500:1 contrast ratio with an 800×480 pixel count on an 8-inch screen.

The contrast figure, Sharp says, means that the monitor will have a rich black color – something that can be an issue with LCD screens. They also say their monitor will survive the bumps, heat and vibrations inherent in a car’s interior.

What auto enthusiasts should be most interested in is the prospect of a screen displaying more than the traditional speedometer/tachometer readings. Sure, it can display the needles and gauges the same way any screen can, but thanks to its high resolution, it can also receive and display data from a navigation screen and a rear-mounted camera.

This could mean the elimination of the center-mounted nav system/backup camera screen –  though we imagine most drivers would want to keep the center screen so their passengers can assist with navigation duties.

Sharp’s monitor could also open the door to true readout customization. Ford offers a My Color system that lets a driver change the color of the gauges, but this could go beyond that. The data could be received and displayed on the screen as on any digital dash, but drivers could have a lot more say as to what it looks like.

Given a clean screen to work with, perhaps a driver could select a tachometer needle that sweeps counterclockwise (as on an Aston Martin DB9) or a bar-graph tachometer as on the Honda S2000. After all, it’s just pixels on a screen.

[Source: Sharp]