Control system to automatically control vehicle headlamps

• US 20040069931A1
• Filed: 10/02/2003
• Published: 04/15/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John K. Roberts, Jon H. Bechtel, Joseph S. Stam
• Original Assignee: John K. Roberts, Jon H. Bechtel, Joseph S. Stam
• Inventors: Roberts, John K., Stam, Joseph S., Bechtel, Jon H.
• Granted Patent: US 6,919,548 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 250/208.1
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/085 due to special conditions, e.g. adverse weather, type of road, badly illuminated road signs or potential dangers B60Q1/10, B60Q1/12, B60Q1/1423 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/1423 Automatic dimming circuits, i.e. switching between high beam and low beam due to change of ambient light or light level in road traffic
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/143 combined with another condition, e.g. using vehicle recognition from camera images or activation of wipers
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/18 being additional front lights bracket mounted headlights B60Q1/0483
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/054 Variable non-standard intensity, i.e. emission of various beam intensities different from standard intensities, e.g. continuous or stepped transitions of intensity
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/112 Vehicle speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/114 Vehicle acceleration or deceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/116 Vehicle at a stop
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/122 Steering angle
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/134 Yaw
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/21 Manual control
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/312 Adverse weather
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/314 Ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/322 Road curvature
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/324 Road inclination, e.g. uphill or downhill
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/332 on city roads
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/3321 Detection of streetlights
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/333 on suburban or country roads
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/337 Tunnels or bridges
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/41 preceding vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/42 : oncoming vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/45 : Special conditions, e.g. pedestrians, road signs or potential dangers
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/584 : of vehicle lights or traffic lights
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/00 : Circuitry of solid-state image sensors [SSIS]; Control thereof

Abstract

An automatic vehicle headlamp dimming system which includes an optical system and an imaging processing system. The optical system is configured to discriminate between headlamps and tail lamps, and focus the light rays from the headlamps and tail lamps on different portions of a pixel sensor array. The optical system as well as the image processing system provides for relatively increased discrimination of headlamps and tail lamps of other vehicles and also enables the high beam headlamps of the control vehicle to be controlled as a function of the distance as well as horizontal angular position of other vehicles relative to the controlled vehicle.

Claims

1. An automatic vehicle exterior light control, comprising:

an image array sensor configured to capture at least one frame;

a controller configured with an undim counter and a dim counter;

said controller is configured to acquire images at a rate greater than, or equal to, two hundred forty frames per second;

said controller is further configured to identify an AC powered light source;

said controller is further configured to distinguish between external sources of light and reflections from the controlled vehicle'"'"'s head lamps off of various external objects;

wherein said controller is further configured to generate an exterior light control.

2. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 1 wherein said controller is further configured to distinguish a stationary light source from an oncoming head lamp and, or, a leading tail lamp.

7. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 1 wherein said undim counter is configured to be set to zero with each frame containing an oncoming head lamp or leading tail lamp.

3. An automatic vehicle exterior light control, comprising:

an image array sensor configured to capture at least one frame; and

a controller configured with an undim counter, said controller is further configured to generate an exterior light control signal as a function of said undim counter.

4. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 3 wherein said undim counter provides verification of a particular light source with said at least one frame.

5. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 3 wherein said undim counter is configured to increment with each clear frame.

6. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 5 wherein said undim counter is compared to a threshold and said exterior light control signal is an exterior light activation signal when said undim counter is greater than and, or equal to, said threshold.

8. An automatic vehicle exterior light control, comprising:

an image array sensor configured to capture at least one frame; and

a controller configured with a dim counter, said controller is further configured to generate an exterior light control signal as a function of said dim counter.

9. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 8 wherein said dim counter provides verification of a particular light source.

10. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 8 wherein said dim counter is configured to increment with each frame comprising a head lamp and, or, a tail lamp.

11. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 10 wherein said dim counter is compared to a threshold and said exterior light control signal is an exterior light deactivation signal when said dim counter is greater than and, or equal to, said threshold.

12. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 8 wherein said dim counter is configured to be set to zero with each clear frame.

13. An automatic vehicle exterior light control, comprising:

an image array sensor and a controller configured to acquire images at a rate greater than, or equal to, two hundred forty frames per second, wherein said controller is further configured to generate an exterior light control signal as a function of said images.

14. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 13 wherein said images comprise fewer than a total number of pixels within said image array sensor.

15. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 13 wherein said controller is further configured to identify an AC powered light source.

16. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 13 wherein said controller is further configured to distinguish a stationary light source from an oncoming head lamp and, or, a leading tail lamp.

17. An automatic vehicle exterior light control, comprising:

a sensor; and

a controller configured to receive a signal from said sensor, said controller is further configured to identify an AC powered light source by detecting intensity modulation, wherein said controller is further configured to generate an exterior light control signal as a function of identifying at least one AC powered light source.

18. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 17 wherein said sensor is an image array sensor, wherein said controller is configured to analyze a plurality of images acquired from said image array sensor.

19. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 18 wherein said controller is configured to identify intensity modulation.

20. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 17 wherein said sensor is a photodiode.

21. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 20 further comprising a low pass filter.

22. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 20 wherein said controller is further configured to determine the ratio of modulated light versus unmodulated light in a scene.

23. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 17 wherein said controller is further configured to distinguish a stationary light source from an oncoming head lamp and, or, a leading tail lamp.

24. An automatic vehicle exterior light control, comprising:

a controller configured to distinguish between external sources of light and reflections from the controlled vehicle'"'"'s head lamps off of various external objects by comparing the relative brightness of imaged objects between two consecutive images where the brightness of at least one of said head lamps is varied between each image.

25. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 24 wherein said controller is further configured to generate an exterior light control signal as a function of said external sources of light.

26. An automatic vehicle exterior light control as in claim 24 wherein said exterior light control signal is configured to vary the intensity of at least one variable intensity head lamp.