Vehicle exterior light outage

• US 10,204,280 B2
• Filed: 06/01/2017
• Issued: 02/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Skaff, Ryan J., Tsai, Tsung-Han
• Primary Examiner(s): Cunningham, Gregory F
• Application Number:
  US15/611,049
• Publication Number:
  US 20180349718A1
• Time in Patent Office: 621 Days
• Field of Search: 382104
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 11/005 for lighting devices, e.g. indicating if lamps are burning or not
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 11/064 by using camera or other imaging system for the light analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 11/065 details about the image analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 11/068 with part of the measurements done from inside the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/60 relating to illumination properties, e.g. using a reflectance or lighting model
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/584 of vehicle lights or traffic lights

Abstract

A computer includes a processor that is programmed to activate a vehicle exterior light, and measure a luminance in a predetermined region outside the vehicle based on vehicle camera data. The processor is programmed to determine whether the vehicle exterior light is operational based the measured luminance.

Claims

1. A computer, comprising a processor programmed to:

activate a vehicle exterior light;

measure a luminance in a region outside the vehicle based on vehicle camera data, wherein the region has a shape defined with respect to the vehicle exterior light and is a predetermined distance from the vehicle; and

determine whether the vehicle exterior light is operational based on the measured luminance.

2. The computer of claim 1, wherein the vehicle exterior light is one of a head light, a turn signal, a hazard light, a parking light, and a brake light.

3. The computer of claim 1, wherein the vehicle camera data is from a forward camera and a rear camera on the vehicle.

4. The computer of claim 1, further programmed to determine whether the vehicle exterior light is operational only after determining an absence of a non-vehicle light source.

5. The computer of claim 4, further programmed to detect the non-vehicle light source in an area around the vehicle based on map data and data received from the camera.

6. The computer of claim 4, further programmed to detect the non-vehicle light source based on a time and weather data.

7. The computer of claim 1, wherein the exterior light is one of a vehicle turn signal and a vehicle hazard light, and the processor is further programmed to determine whether the exterior light flashes with an expected frequency based on the measured luminance.

8. The computer of claim 1, further programmed to:

measure a second luminance in a second predetermined region associated with a second vehicle exterior light; and

determine whether the second vehicle exterior light is operational based on the second luminance.

9. The computer of claim 8, further programmed to, upon determining that a difference between the luminance and the second luminance exceeds a predetermined threshold, actuate a vehicle component.

10. The computer of claim 8, wherein the predetermined region extends along a front right direction of the vehicle and the second predetermined region extends along a front left direction of the vehicle.

11. The computer of claim 8, wherein the predetermined region and the second predetermined region have no overlap.

12. A method, comprising:

activating a vehicle exterior light;

measuring a luminance in a region outside the vehicle based on vehicle camera data, wherein the region has a shape defined with respect to the vehicle exterior light and is a predetermined distance from the vehicle; and

determining whether the vehicle exterior light is operational based on the measured luminance.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the vehicle exterior light is one of a head light, a turn signal, a hazard light, a parking light, and a brake light.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the vehicle camera data is from a forward camera and a rear camera on the vehicle.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein determining whether the vehicle exterior light is operational is only performed after determining an absence of a non-vehicle light source.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising detecting the non-vehicle light source in an area around the vehicle based on at least one of map data, data received from the camera, time, and weather data.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining whether the vehicle exterior light flashes with an expected frequency based on the measured luminance.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

measuring a second luminance in a second predetermined region associated with a second vehicle exterior light; and

determining whether the second vehicle exterior light is operational based on the second luminance.

19. A computer, comprising a processor programmed to:

activate a vehicle exterior light;

measure a luminance and a histogram in a predetermined region outside the vehicle based on vehicle camera data; and

determine whether the vehicle exterior light is operational based on the measured luminance and the histogram.

20. The computer of claim 19, wherein the processor is further programmed to determine whether the vehicle exterior light is operational based on the determined histogram and a reference histogram.