IRRADIATION SYSTEM

• US 20160039331A1
• Filed: 08/10/2015
• Published: 02/11/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Masuda, Sho, Hiratsuka, Shigeyoshi, Shiraki, Nobuyuki, Shimaoka, Keiichi, Higuchi, Kazunori, Asaoka, Kazuya
• Granted Patent: US 9,701,237 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 2300/42 oncoming vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/584 of vehicle lights or traffic lights

Abstract

An irradiation system includes: a light position detection unit that detects a light position of an oncoming vehicle from a captured image; a driver position calculation unit that calculates a position upward and shifted in a first direction by a first distance from the light position detected by the light position detection unit, as a driver position; a shaded area generation unit that generates a first area having vertices respectively set at the light position, the driver position and a position shifted in a second direction, opposite to the first direction, by a distance between a pair of lights in the predetermined vehicle from the driver position, as a shaded area; and an irradiation unit that irradiates an area ahead of the host vehicle while shading the shaded area generated by the shaded area generation unit.

Claims

1. An irradiation system comprising:

a light position detection unit configured to detect a light position of an oncoming vehicle from a captured image captured by an imaging device configured to capture an image ahead of a host vehicle;

a driver position calculation unit configured to calculate a position upward by a difference in height between each of light positions and a driver'"'"'s face position in a predetermined vehicle and shifted in a first direction by a first distance from the light position detected by the light position detection unit, as a driver position;

a shaded area generation unit configured to generate a first area having vertices respectively set at the light position, the driver position and a position shifted in a second direction, opposite to the first direction, by a distance between a pair of lights in the predetermined vehicle from the driver position, as a shaded area; and

an irradiation unit configured to irradiate an area ahead of the host vehicle while shading the shaded area generated by the shaded area generation unit.

2. The irradiation system according to claim 1, wherein

the first distance is a difference between a distance from each of the light positions to a vehicle center in the predetermined vehicle and a distance in a lateral direction from the vehicle center to the driver'"'"'s face position in the predetermined vehicle.

3. The irradiation system according to claim 1, wherein

the shaded area generation unit is configured to further generate an elliptical area or polygonal area that circumscribes the first area.

4. The irradiation system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a missing light position calculation unit configured to calculate a missing light position shifted in the first direction by the distance between the pair of lights in the predetermined vehicle from the light position detected by the light position detection unit, wherein

the shaded area generation unit is configured to generate a quadrilateral area as the shaded area by combining the first area with a second area having vertices respectively set at the light position, the missing light position and the driver position.

5. The irradiation system according to claim 1, wherein

the first direction is a rightward direction, and the second direction is a leftward direction.

6. The irradiation system according to claim 1, wherein

the first direction is a leftward direction, and the second direction is a rightward direction.

7. The irradiation system according to claim 1, wherein

the driver position calculation unit is configured to calculate a position upward by the difference in height between each of the light positions and the driver'"'"'s face position in the predetermined vehicle and shifted in the first direction from the light position detected by the light position detection unit by a difference between a distance from each of the light positions to a vehicle center in the predetermined vehicle and a distance in a lateral direction from the vehicle center to the driver'"'"'s face position in the predetermined vehicle, as the driver position.

8. The irradiation system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a rectangular area generation unit configured to, when both light positions of a pair of lights of the oncoming vehicle have been detected by the light position detection unit, generate a rectangular area based on the light positions of the pair of lights of the oncoming vehicle, wherein the irradiation unit is configured to, when the light positions of the pair of lights of the oncoming vehicle have been detected by the light position detection unit, shade the rectangular area generated by the rectangular area generation unit, and, when one light position of the oncoming vehicle has been detected by the light position detection unit, shade the shaded area generated by the shaded area generation unit.

9. The irradiation system according to claim 1, wherein

the imaging device and the irradiation unit are installed such that an optical axis of the imaging device and an optical axis of the irradiation unit are aligned with each other.