DYNAMIC MEANS OF ILLUMINATING A FIELD OF VISION

• US 20160152173A1
• Filed: 07/15/2014
• Published: 06/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZKW Group GmbH (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Zizala Lichtsysteme GmbH (Zizala Vermögensverwaltungs- Und Beteiligungsges mbH)
• Inventors: Mayer, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 9,981,593 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 1/1438 Actuating means for dimming masks or screens
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/16 illuminating the way asymmetrically
• 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 2300/23 Driver's line of sight
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/322 Road curvature
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/45 Special conditions, e.g. pedestrians, road signs or potential dangers

Abstract

A process for producing an adaptive light pattern that is produced by at least one vehicle headlight (SW1, SW2) in a vehicle (2) that can be steered by a vehicle driver (3), the at least one vehicle headlight (SW1, SW2) having at least one adaptive means of illumination (BM1, BM2), wherein at least one camera (5) detects the direction (BR) in which the vehicle driver is looking, at least one computing unit (6) evaluates the information obtained in this way and produces, on the basis of this information, control signals and transmits the control signals to the at least one vehicle headlight (SW1, SW2) with the at least one adaptive means of illumination (BM1, BM2), and wherein the at least one adaptive means of illumination (BM1, BM2) is controlled, on the basis of the control signals for targeted illumination of an area (BR1) lying in the direction (BR) in which the vehicle driver (3) is looking.

Claims

1. A process for producing an adaptive light pattern that is produced by at least one vehicle headlight (SW1, SW2) in a vehicle (2) that can be steered by a vehicle driver (3), the at least one vehicle headlight (SW1, SW2) having at least one adaptive means of illumination (BM1, BM2), the process comprising:

detecting, with at least one camera (5), the direction (BR) in which the vehicle driver is looking;

using at least one computing unit (6) to evaluate the detected direction and thereby produce control signals; and

transmitting the control signals to the at least one vehicle headlight (SW1, SW2) with the at least one adaptive means of illumination (BM1, BM2),

wherein the at least one adaptive means of illumination (BM1, BM2) is controlled, on the basis of the control signals, for targeted illumination of an area (BR1) lying in the direction (BR) in which the vehicle driver (3) is looking, and

wherein the at least one adaptive means of illumination (BM1, BM2) is set up to execute different light functions, in particular a low-beam function, a glare-free high-beam function, and an adaptive light pattern function, the light functions being organized in a hierarchy, the production of the low-beam pattern preferably having the highest priority, followed by the production of the high-beam pattern and the targeted illumination of the area lying in the direction (BR) in which the vehicle driver (3) is looking.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the adaptive light pattern is produced by horizontal and/or vertical segmentation of the light pattern of the at least one means of illumination (BM1, BM2).

3. The process of claim 1, wherein the adaptive light pattern is put together from the light patterns of two vehicle headlights (SW1, SW2), each of which has at least one adaptive means of illumination (BM1, BM2).

4. The process of claim 1, wherein the adaptive light pattern is put together from the light patterns of two vehicle headlights (SW1, SW2), each of which has exactly one adaptive means of illumination (BM1, BM2).

5. The process of claim 1, wherein the adaptive light pattern is produced by at least two adaptive means of illumination (BM1, BM2) that are controlled independently of one another.

6. The process of claim 1, wherein the vehicle surroundings are detected by at least one camera (5), and the at least one computing unit (6) evaluates the information obtained in this way and recognizes road users located in the vehicle surroundings and selects them according to defined criteria, at least the targeted illumination of the selected road users being suppressed.

7. The process of claim 1, wherein the at least one camera (5) detects a curve in the road lying in front of the vehicle (2).

8. The process of claim 1, wherein the vehicle surroundings are detected by at least one camera (5), and the at least one computing unit (6) evaluates the information obtained in this way and recognizes light-reflecting objects, in particular road signs, located in the vehicle surroundings and controls the intensity of targeted illumination of a light-reflecting object on the basis of its reflectivity.

9. The process of claim 1, wherein the vehicle surroundings are detected by at least one camera (5) and the at least one computing unit (6) evaluates the information obtained by means of the camera (5) and checks objects, in particular moving objects, located in the vehicle surroundings for their relevance to the traffic on the basis of defined criteria, the position of a respective object being compared with the direction in which the vehicle driver (3) is looking and, depending on the result of the checking of the object and the comparison with the direction in which the vehicle driver is looking, taking at least one illuminating engineering measure to direct the attention of the vehicle driver.

10. An illumination system (1) for producing an adaptive light pattern that is produced by at least one vehicle headlight (SW 1, SW2) in a vehicle (2) that is steered by a vehicle driver (3), the at least one vehicle headlight (SW 1, SW2) having at least one adaptive means of illumination (BM1, BM2), the illumination system comprising:

at least one camera (5) set up to detect the direction (BR) in which the vehicle driver is looking; and

at least one computing unit (6) configured to control the at least one adaptive means of illumination for targeted illumination of an area (BR1) lying in the direction (BR) in which the vehicle driver (3) is looking,

wherein the at least one adaptive means of illumination (BM1, BM2) is set up to execute different light functions, in particular a low-beam function, a glare-free high-beam function, and an adaptive light pattern function, the light functions being organized in a hierarchy, the production of the low-beam pattern preferably having the highest priority, followed by the production of the high-beam pattern and the targeted illumination of the area lying in the direction (BR) in which the vehicle driver (3) is looking.

11. The illumination system of claim 10, wherein the at least one means of illumination (BM1, BM2) have horizontal and/or vertical segmentation.

12. The illumination system of claim 10, wherein the vehicle (2), in particular the at least one vehicle headlight (SW1, SW2) has exactly one adaptive means of illumination (BM1, BM2).

13. The illumination system of claim 10, wherein at least one camera (5) is set up to detect the vehicle surroundings, the at least one computing unit (6) being set up to evaluate the information obtained in this way and to recognize road users located in the vehicle surroundings, recognized road users being selected according to defined criteria and it being possible to suppress the targeted illumination of the selected road users.

14. The illumination system of claim 13, wherein at least one camera (5) is set up to detect a curve in the road lying in front of the vehicle (2).

15. The illumination system of claim 10, wherein at least one camera (5) is set up to detect the vehicle surroundings, the at least one computing unit (6) being set up to evaluate the information obtained in this way and to recognize objects, in particular road signs, located in the vehicle surroundings, and it being possible to control the intensity of targeted illumination of a light-reflecting object on the basis of its reflectivity.

16. The illumination system of claim 10, wherein at least one camera (5) is set up to detect the vehicle surroundings, the at least one computing unit (6) being set up to evaluate the information obtained in this way and to recognize and check objects, especially moving objects, located in the vehicle surroundings, the computing unit being set up to compare the position of a respective object with the direction in which the vehicle driver (3) is looking and, depending on the result of the checking of the object and the comparison with the direction in which the vehicle driver is looking, triggering the at least one adaptive means of illumination (BM1, BM2) in a targeted manner.

17. A motor vehicle comprising at least one illumination system of claim 10.

18. The motor vehicle of claim 17, wherein the motor vehicle has two front headlights equipped with the illumination system.