Display for the external surface of a vehicle

Abstract

This invention relates to a system and method for customizing the appearance of vehicle that includes the display of content on the vehicle. The display takes up a large portion of the vehicle body and is flexible and bends with the contour of the vehicle body. The display can be integrated with the body panels or retrofitted o existing body panels of the vehicle.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for displaying customized content on a vehicle, comprising:
 A vehicle having an exterior surface;   A control unit (CU);   Memory;   A display;   An Input/Output (I/O) unit; and   A power unit;   Wherein the display shows the customized content;   Wherein the display occupies between 40% to about 100% of the exterior surface of the vehicle.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the display is flexible and bends with the contour of the exterior surface of the vehicle. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the display is not substantially flat or rigid and wherein the display is flexible and bends with the contour of the exterior surface of the vehicle. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the display is not square or rectangular in shape. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the display has a characteristic or any one of the following: 8-bit to 48-bit color depth, 15 frames to 120 frames-per-second frame rate, 15 Hz to 120 Hz operating frequency and a color depth between 8-bits to 16-bits. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the I/O unit may use at least one of the following protocols: IEEE 1394, Firewire, USB, USB, RS-232, Ethernet, Ultrawide Band (UWB), Zigbee, 60 GHz, Wi-fi, 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n wired and wireless, Bluetooth, Radio Frequency (RF), Infrared (IR), cellular, IEEE 802.15.1, CDMA, TDMA and FDMA. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the power unit provides power using at least one of the following: batteries, solar, kinetic, power-over-ethernet (POE) and power-over-wifi (POWF). 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the memory consists of one of the following: static-state-drives (SSD), flash memory, EEPROM, SRAM, DRAM and RAM. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the system further comprises a loudspeaker. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the customized content consists of at least one of the following: text data, image data, color data, video data, sound data or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the customized content is designed using a software program. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the software program executes on at least one of the following: a desktop PC, laptop PC, netbook, notebook, tablet PC, PDA, mobile telephone, Internet server, Intranet server, mobile device and said CU. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the display consists of one of the following: Organic Light Emitting Diode/Device/Display (OLED), Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED), FOLED (Flexible Organic Light Emitting Diode), PhOLED (Phosphorescent Organic Light Emitting Diode, PLED (Polymer Light Emitting Diode, PMOLED (Passive Matrix. OLED), POLED (Polymer Organic Light Emitting Diode), RCOLED (Resonant Color Organic Light Emitting Diode), SmOLED (Small Molecule Organic Light Emitting Diode, SOLED (Stacked Organic Light Emitting Diode), TOLED (Transparent Organic Light Emitting. Diode) and NOID (Neon Organic Iodine Diode). 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the display is integrated into one or more body panels of the vehicle. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the display is retrofitted onto one or more body panels of an existing vehicle.