Vehicle room illuminating apparatus
First Claim
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1. A vehicle room illuminating apparatus for an automotive vehicle, comprising:
- (a) illuminating means for illuminating a vehicle room;
(b) optical sensing means for sensing external brightness; and
(c) controlling means responsive to said optical sensing means, for adjustably illuminating the vehicle room under consideration of human eye adaptation to the external brightness.
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Abstract
The brightness within a vehicle room is adjusted according to external brightness (i.e. illuminance or luminance) at night in such a way that the brightness is increased with increasing external brightness and decreased with decreasing external brightness, under due consideration of human eye adaptation to external lightness and darkness. Therefore, the passenger can read a book, for instance, at roughly a constant visual sensitivity, without being subjected to the influence of change in external illuminance or luminance.
33 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A vehicle room illuminating apparatus for an automotive vehicle, comprising:
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(a) illuminating means for illuminating a vehicle room; (b) optical sensing means for sensing external brightness; and (c) controlling means responsive to said optical sensing means, for adjustably illuminating the vehicle room under consideration of human eye adaptation to the external brightness. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method of illuminating a vehicle room at night, comprising the steps of:
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(a) sensing external brightness; and (b) illuminating the vehicle room in such a way that brightness in the vehicle room increases with increasing external brightness and decreases with decreasing external brightness. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
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18. A vehicle room illuminating apparatus for an automotive vehicle, comprising:
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(a) illuminating means for illuminating a vehicle room; (b) optical sensing means for sensing instantaneous external brightness for a predetermined period of time without being subjected to influence of said vehicle room illuminating means; and (c) controlling means responsive to said optical sensing means, for calculating an average of the sensed instantaneous external brightness and adjustably illuminating the vehicle room on the basis of the calculated average brightness under consideration of human eye adaptation to the external brightness in such a way that brightness in the vehicle room is increased with increasing external brightness and decreased with decreasing external brightness at night.
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19. A method of illuminating a vehicle room at night, comprising the steps of:
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(a) sensing instantaneous external brightness; (b) averaging the sensed instantaneous external brightness for a predetermined period of time; (c) classifying the averaged external brightness into a plurality of grades; and (d) illuminating the vehicle room in such a way that brightness in the vehicle room increases with increasing external brightness and decreases with decreasing external brightness at a plurality of different brightness grades according to the classified external brightness grades.
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Specification