Vehicle headlamp system
First Claim
1. A vehicle headlamp system with headlamps, each of which contains a lamp unit within a lamp body for emitting beams forward with a predetermined luminous intensity distribution, comprising:
- vehicle-to-vehicle distance measuring means for measuring the vehicle-to-vehicle distance between a first vehicle and a second preceding vehicle, and variable luminous intensity control means for varying said luminous intensity distribution according to said vehicle-to-vehicle distance when the speed of the first vehicle exceeds a predetermined value.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A vehicle headlamp system with headlamps, each of which contains a lamp unit for emitting beams forward with a predetermined luminous intensity distribution. The system carries out beam emission with a luminous intensity distribution corresponding to the travel conditions of a vehicle. In an implementation, when the speed of one'"'"'s own vehicle exceeds 25 km/h, a low-beam luminous intensity distribution P(L) is varied according to a vehicle-to-vehicle distance in relation to a preceding vehicle. Remote visibility is increased by positioning a cut-off line slightly upward when the vehicle-to-vehicle distance L is long, whereas when the vehicle-to-vehicle distance L is short the cut-off line is lowered slightly in order not to give a glare to the driver of the preceding vehicle. But when the vehicle speed V is 25 km/h or lower, the low-beam luminous intensity distribution P(L) is fixed at a downward position which prevents glare and prevents an unpleasant feeling that something is wrong from being given to the driver of the preceding vehicle resulting from the change of the low-beam luminous intensity distribution P(L).
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. A vehicle headlamp system with headlamps, each of which contains a lamp unit within a lamp body for emitting beams forward with a predetermined luminous intensity distribution, comprising:
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vehicle-to-vehicle distance measuring means for measuring the vehicle-to-vehicle distance between a first vehicle and a second preceding vehicle, and variable luminous intensity control means for varying said luminous intensity distribution according to said vehicle-to-vehicle distance when the speed of the first vehicle exceeds a predetermined value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for operating a vehicle headlamp system comprising:
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measuring the distance between a first vehicle and a second preceding vehicle with a distance measuring means associated with a headlamp of the first vehicle; and
varying a luminous intensity distribution of each headlamp of the headlamp system according to the distance between the first and second vehicles when the speed of the first vehicle exceeds a predetermined value. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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Specification