Abstract: A control device in a vehicle is used for controlling a plurality of vehicle functions. An air interface is provided, via which the control device in the vehicle may be accessed from an input device.

Abstract: A radio receiver for use in a vehicle, the radio receiver including a hard-disk drive having a hard disk, on which data can be stored in a non-volatile manner on storage locations of the hard disk, and a write-read memory so that data stored on the hard disk can be transferred into the write-read memory and can be displayed on a display device.

Abstract: An illumination member with a diffuser in which spheres or particles having a different refractive index compared to the diffuser are distributed. The luminance on the output face of the diffuser can be controlled with the number, size and homogeneity of the diffused spheres or particles. A suitable illumination device can set the luminance to bright or dark depending on how it is operated. One preferred application is the illumination of liquid crystal displays or measuring devices in a motor vehicle.

Abstract: An automobile equipped with the vehicular portion of a traffic information and guidance system utilizing exchange of data between vehicles and the rest of the system through inductive coupling with loops set at various places in roadways, is provided with two-way telephone communication possibilities at places where roadway loops are provided where a car can stop for making a telephone call, as for example in a parking space. Only small amounts of equipment need to be added to the vehicle and to the fixed installations to permit telephone communication between the vehicle and telephones in a public network. Separate receivers and transmitters for speech communication operated with amplitude or frequency modulation can be switched in, or else the speech signals can be converted into pulse code modulation and simply supplied through input/output units to the data transmitter/receiver of the traffic information system.

Abstract: A circuit is provided to detect the direction of movement of the vehicle with respect to a fixed road mounted loop, which can then extend over opposing lanes of a highway network, the direction detecting equipment being mounted either on the vehicle, or connected to the road mounted unit so that correct destination guidance information can be transmitted to vehicles passing a loop embedded in the roadway upon transmitting from the vehicle to the roadway a target or destination code.

Abstract: A first counter operating as a frequency-shiftable frequency divider is caused to reset before its normal count recycle in one setting of a flip-flop to reduce the factor of frequency division in response to a keying signal. A second counter, operating on a digital input derived from the output of the frequency-shiftable divider sequences a logic network to produce a stepped wave output, with steps each of a duration of one or two count intervals sequentially connecting voltage at one of four several non-zero predetermined voltage levels in a predetermined sequence to the output. The stepped wave approximates a succession of half-wave sinusoids of the same polarity in which the bottom step of zero voltage is of zero width so that the last next lowest step of one sinusoid and the first of the next sinusoid join into a single two-period step.