Lighting device for a vehicle
First Claim
1. A lighting apparatus for controlling irradiation of a vehicle lighting device, said lighting apparatus comprising:
- an irradiation control means for controlling the irradiation of said lighting device in accordance with a road profile, operation of the vehicle and running condition of the vehicle;
a road profile calculating means for determining road-direction data representing a first predicted advancing direction of the vehicle, associated with an advancing direction of the vehicle in the case where the vehicle advances along a road on which the vehicle is running at present, in accordance with map information including the road profile and the present position information of the vehicle; and
a vehicle advancing direction predicting means for predicting vehicle-direction data representing a second predicted advancing direction of the vehicle intended by a driver, on the basis of an operation signal given by the driver, wherein the operation signal given by the driver includes a direction indicating signal, and the vehicle advancing direction predicting means predicts vehicle-direction data based on at least the operation signal given by the driver,wherein the irradiation control means compares the road-direction data with the predicted-vehicle-direction data to determine a difference therebetween, andwherein the irradiation control means controls the lighting device in accordance with the road-direction data when said difference is in an allowable range, and controls the lighting device in accordance with the predicted-vehicle-direction data when the difference is outside of the allowable range.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A lighting device in which the vehicle advancing direction at which a driver aims is predicted, and the irradiating direction and irradiating range of a lighting device are controlled by comparing the result of the prediction to the information of the profile of a road on which the vehicle is running at present. The lighting device (1) includes a road profile calculating device (2) for finding an advancing direction of the vehicle in the case where the vehicle advances along a road on which the vehicle is running at present, in accordance with the map information including the road profile and the present position information of the vehicle; and a vehicle advancing direction predicting device (3) for predicting an advancing direction of the vehicle intended by a driver, by an operation signal given by the driver or detection information of the vehicle running state. The irradiation controller device (4) compares the direction data of the road profile calculating device (2) with the direction data of the vehicle advancing direction predicting device (3), the irradiation control of the lighting device (5) is conducted by the road profile in accordance with the direction data of the road profile calculating device (2) when a difference between them is in an allowable range, and the irradiation control of the lighting device (5) is conducted by the direction data of the vehicle advancing direction predicting device (3) when the difference between them is out of the allowable range.
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. A lighting apparatus for controlling irradiation of a vehicle lighting device, said lighting apparatus comprising:
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an irradiation control means for controlling the irradiation of said lighting device in accordance with a road profile, operation of the vehicle and running condition of the vehicle; a road profile calculating means for determining road-direction data representing a first predicted advancing direction of the vehicle, associated with an advancing direction of the vehicle in the case where the vehicle advances along a road on which the vehicle is running at present, in accordance with map information including the road profile and the present position information of the vehicle; and a vehicle advancing direction predicting means for predicting vehicle-direction data representing a second predicted advancing direction of the vehicle intended by a driver, on the basis of an operation signal given by the driver, wherein the operation signal given by the driver includes a direction indicating signal, and the vehicle advancing direction predicting means predicts vehicle-direction data based on at least the operation signal given by the driver, wherein the irradiation control means compares the road-direction data with the predicted-vehicle-direction data to determine a difference therebetween, and wherein the irradiation control means controls the lighting device in accordance with the road-direction data when said difference is in an allowable range, and controls the lighting device in accordance with the predicted-vehicle-direction data when the difference is outside of the allowable range. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification