Vehicle headlight control using imaging sensor
First Claim
1. A vehicle headlamp control, comprising:
- an imaging sensor that senses light in spatially separated regions of a field of view forward of a vehicle; and
a control circuit that is responsive to said imaging sensor in order to determine if individual regions of the field of view include light levels having a particular intensity level in order to identify light sources of interest and provide a control output to said vehicle that is a function of the identification of light sources of interest.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A vehicle headlamp control method and apparatus includes providing an imaging sensor that senses light in spatially separated regions of a field of view forward of the vehicle. Light levels sensed in individual regions of the field of view are evaluated in order to identify light sources of interest, such as oncoming headlights and leading taillights. The vehicle'"'"'s headlights are controlled in response to identifying such particular light sources or absence of such light sources. Spectral signatures of light sources may be examined in order to determine if the spectral signature matches that of particular light sources such as the spectral signatures of headlights or taillights. Sensed light levels may also be evaluated for their spatial distribution in order to identify light sources of interest.
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Citations
53 Claims
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1. A vehicle headlamp control, comprising:
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an imaging sensor that senses light in spatially separated regions of a field of view forward of a vehicle; and
a control circuit that is responsive to said imaging sensor in order to determine if individual regions of the field of view include light levels having a particular intensity level in order to identify light sources of interest and provide a control output to said vehicle that is a function of the identification of light sources of interest. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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13. A vehicle headlight control, comprising:
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a solid-state light sensor array made up of a plurality of sensors arranged in a matrix on at least one semiconductor substrate and a spectral separation device to apply particular spectral regions to particular ones of said sensors, wherein each of said sensors responds to light in a particular spectral region;
an optical device for directing light onto said sensor array in a manner which preserves spatial separation of light sources forward of the vehicle; and
a control circuit that is responsive to said plurality of sensors in order to determine if spatially adjacent one or ones of said sensors are sensing light of a particular spectral signature above a particular intensity level in order to identify light sources that are either oncoming headlights or leading taillights to thereby control the vehicle headlights.
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36. A method of detecting light sources of interest forward of a vehicle in order to control the headlights of that vehicle, including:
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providing a solid-state photosensor array made up of a plurality of sensors arranged in a matrix and mapping particular spatially arranged portions of a field of view forward of the vehicle onto said array in a manner which generally preserves the spatial arrangement of the field of view;
restricting light received by each sensor to a particular spectral region so that each sensor responds to light having a particular spectral range; and
evaluating light levels sensed by each sensor in order to establish a spectral signature of light sources in said field of view in order to identify light sources of interest in said field of view.
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45. A method of detecting light sources of interest forward of a vehicle in order to control the headlights of that vehicle, including:
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providing a solid-state photosensor array made up of a plurality of sensors arranged in a matrix and mapping particular spatially arranged portions of a field of view forward of the vehicle onto said array in a manner which generally preserves the spatial arrangement of the field of view;
evaluating light levels detected by each sensor in order to identify light sources of interest at least in part as a function of a spatial distribution of each light source in said field of view.
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Specification