IRRADIATION APPARATUS

• US 20150291081A1
• Filed: 04/08/2015
• Published: 10/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: KOJIMA, Shin-ichi, TSUKADA, Toshihiko, ASAOKA, Kazuya, SHIMAOKA, Keiichi, MASUDA, Sho
• Granted Patent: US 10,118,534 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 1/143 combined with another condition, e.g. using vehicle recognition from camera images or activation of wipers
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/056 Special anti-blinding beams, e.g. a standard beam is chopped or moved in order not to blind
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/45 Special conditions, e.g. pedestrians, road signs or potential dangers

Abstract

An irradiation apparatus includes a shielded object detecting unit, an illumination setting unit, an irradiating device, and an illumination controlling unit. The shielded object detecting unit detects a shielded object. Glare is allowable to the shielded object at an upper limit of illumination brightness or less. A driver can visually recognize the shielded object at an lower limit of the illumination brightness or more. The illumination setting unit sets the illumination brightness based on the upper limit and the lower limit of the illumination brightness. The illumination controlling unit controls the irradiating device such that light is emitted in a predetermined irradiation pattern in which a first part of the shielded object is illuminated at the illumination brightness set by the illumination setting unit and a second part of the shielded object is illuminated at a higher illumination brightness than that of the first part.

Claims

1. An irradiation apparatus comprising:

a shielded object detecting unit configured to detect a shielded object to be shielded from light emitted from the irradiation apparatus;

an illumination upper limit estimating unit configured to estimate an upper limit of an illumination brightness with which the shielded object is irradiated, based on a relative position of the shielded object detected by the shielded object detecting unit relative to a host vehicle, wherein glare is allowable to the shielded object at the upper limit of the illumination brightness or less;

an illumination lower limit estimating unit configured to estimate a lower limit of the illumination brightness, based on a brightness of a background of the shielded object, wherein a driver of the host vehicle can visually recognize the shielded object at the lower limit of the illumination brightness or more;

an illumination setting unit configured to set the illumination brightness, based on the upper limit of the illumination brightness estimated by the illumination upper limit estimating unit and the lower limit of the illumination brightness estimated by the illumination lower limit estimating unit;

an irradiating device configured to irradiate a periphery of the host vehicle with light in an irradiation pattern; and

an illumination controlling unit configured to control the irradiating device based on the relative position relative to the host vehicle and the illumination brightness set by the illumination setting unit, such that light is emitted in a predetermined irradiation pattern in which a first part of the shielded object is illuminated at the illumination brightness set by the illumination setting unit and a second part of the shielded object is illuminated at a higher illumination brightness than the illumination brightness set by the illumination setting unit when seen from the host vehicle, the second part not including the first part.

2. The irradiation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the illumination setting unit is configured to set the illumination brightness to be between the upper limit of the illumination brightness estimated by the illumination upper limit estimating unit and the lower limit of the illumination brightness estimated by the illumination lower limit estimating unit.

3. The irradiation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a visible light image capturing device configured to capture a visible light image representing the periphery of the host vehicle,

wherein the illumination lower limit estimating unit is configured to estimate the lower limit of the illumination brightness based on the brightness of the background of the shielded object on the visible light image captured by the visible light image capturing device.

4. The irradiation apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the shielded object detecting unit is configured to detect the shielded object based on the visible light image captured by the visible light image capturing device,

the illumination controlling unit is configured to control the irradiating device to emit light without shielding the shielded object at a first timing at which the visible light image is captured, and

the illumination controlling unit is configured to control the irradiating device to emit light in the predetermined irradiation pattern at a second timing different from the first timing

5. The irradiation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a three-dimensional position measuring device configured to measure a three-dimensional position of an object existing on the periphery of the host vehicle; and

a position estimating unit configured to estimate, based on the three-dimensional position measured by the three-dimensional position measuring device, a relative three-dimensional position of the shielded object detected by the shielded object detecting unit relative to the host vehicle, wherein

the illumination upper limit estimating unit is configured to estimate the upper limit of the illumination brightness based on the relative three-dimensional position estimated by the position estimating unit.

6. The irradiation apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising:

an illumination database that stores illumination brightness values determined in advance in relation to respective relative three-dimensional positions relative to the host vehicle;

a shielded object illumination calculating unit configured to calculate, based on the relative three-dimensional position estimated by the position estimating unit and the illumination brightness values stored in the illumination database, an illumination brightness to be applied to the shielded object;

an angle estimating unit configured to estimate, based on the relative three-dimensional position estimated by the position estimating unit, an angle formed by an orientation of the shielded object and an irradiation direction in which the irradiating device emits light; and

an adaptation luminance estimating unit configured to estimate an adaptation luminance of the shielded object, wherein

the illumination upper limit estimating unit is configured to estimate the upper limit of the illumination brightness based on the illumination brightness calculated by the shielded object illumination calculating unit, the angle estimated by the angle estimating unit, and the adaptation luminance estimated by the adaptation luminance estimating unit.

7. The irradiation apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the angle estimating unit and the adaptation luminance estimating unit constitute at least a part of the illumination upper limit estimating unit.

8. The irradiation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the shielded object detecting unit is configured to detect a pedestrian as the shielded object,

the first part of the shielded object corresponds to a head portion of the pedestrian, and

the second part of the shielded object corresponds to at least a portion of the pedestrian other than the head portion of the pedestrian.