VEHICLE HEADLAMP CONTROL DEVICE

• US 20170120801A1
• Filed: 06/05/2015
• Published: 05/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: ASAOKA, Kazuya, KOJIMA, Shinichi, HIGUCHI, Kazunori
• Granted Patent: US 10,189,396 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/0011 with light guides for distributing the light between several lighting or signalling devices
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/14 having dimming means
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: F21S 41/141 Light emitting diodes [LED]
• CPC Class Codes: F21S 41/30 characterised by reflectors
• CPC Class Codes: F21S 41/675 by moving reflectors
• CPC Class Codes: F21Y 2115/10 Light-emitting diodes [LED]
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/13306 Circuit arrangements or driving methods for the control of single liquid crystal cells G02F1/132, G02F1/133382 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/137 characterised by the electro-optical or magneto-optical effect, e.g. field-induced phase transition, orientation effect, guest-host interaction or dynamic scattering
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/19 Sensors therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/12 using optical feedback
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/30 Semiconductor lamps, e.g. solid state lamps [SSL] light emitting diodes [LED] or organic LED [OLED]

Abstract

A vehicle headlamp control device includes a headlamp that irradiates an area in front of a vehicle, a camera that captures an image of the area in font of the vehicle, a pedestrian detection portion configured to detect a pedestrian in front of the vehicle from an image captured by the camera, and a control portion configured to control the headlamp and cause the headlamp to irradiate the pedestrian so that a given-shaped part that is not irradiated is formed at a location of an eye of the pedestrian, or a given-shaped part irradiated by dimmed light is formed at the location of the eye of the pedestrian.

Claims

1. A vehicle headlamp control device comprising:

a headlamp that irradiates an area in front of a vehicle;

a camera that captures an image of the area in front of the vehicle;

a pedestrian detection portion configured to detect a pedestrian in front of the vehicle from the image captured by the camera; and

a control portion configured to control the headlamp and cause the headlamp to irradiate the pedestrian so that a given-shaped part that is not irradiated is formed at a location of an eye of the pedestrian, or a given-shaped part irradiated by dimmed light is formed at the location of the eye of the pedestrian.

2. The vehicle headlamp control device according to claim 1, wherein

the pedestrian detection portion is configured to detect the pedestrian in front of the vehicle from the image captured by the camera by performing pattern recognition based on a preregistered pattern image, and

an image of a pedestrian, whose eyes are hidden by the given-shaped part, is preregistered as the pattern image.

3. The vehicle headlamp control device according to claim 1, wherein

the control portion configured to control the headlamp causes the headlamp to irradiate the pedestrian so that a sunglasses-shaped part that is not irradiated is formed at the location of the eye of the pedestrian, or a sunglasses-shaped part irradiated by dimmed light is formed at the location of the eye of the pedestrian.

4. The vehicle headlamp control device according to claim 1, wherein

the control portion configured to control the headlamp causes the headlamp to irradiate the pedestrian so that the given-shaped part that is not irradiated is formed in an iris portion including a pupil in an area of the eye of the pedestrian, or the given-shaped part irradiated by dimmed light is formed in the iris portion including the pupil in the area of the eye of the pedestrian.

5. The vehicle headlamp control device according to claim 1, wherein the headlamp changes a light quantity in each irradiation direction within an irradiation range.

6. The vehicle headlamp control device according to claim 1, wherein the headlamp shields light from a light source and forms the given-shaped part that is not irradiated or the given-shaped part that is irradiated by dimmed light.

7. The vehicle headlamp control device according to claim 1, wherein the headlamp is of a mirror element projector type.

8. The vehicle headlamp control device according to claim 1, wherein the headlamp is of a liquid crystal projector type.

9. The vehicle headlamp control device according to claim 1, wherein the headlamp is of a LED matrix type.

10. The vehicle headlamp control device according to claim 1, wherein an anti-glare lighting mode is included in a lighting mode, in which the headlamp is controlled so as to irradiate a whole body of the pedestrian while carrying out glare protection for the pedestrian in front of the vehicle.