Switching procedure of the motor vehicle headlight lighting mode

• US 8,465,184 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2009
• Issued: 06/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Valeo Vision (Valeo SE)
• Original Assignee: Valeo Vision (Valeo SE)
• Inventors: Hue, David, Moizard, Julien, Reilhac, Patrice
• Primary Examiner(s): Husar, Stephen F
• Application Number:
  US12/640,250
• Publication Number:
  US 20100157614A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,279 Days
• Field of Search: 340/469, 340/602, 362/465, 362/466, 382/104
• US Class Current: 362/466
• 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 1/1423 Automatic dimming circuits, i.e. switching between high beam and low beam due to change of ambient light or light level in road traffic
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/312 Adverse weather

Abstract

An automatic headlight switching procedure for motor vehicles, designed to emit a beam of light from one lighting mode to another lighting mode. The process features the steps of when the headlights are in a first lighting mode, detecting the backscatter of the headlight beam onto a phenomenon of visibility disturbance; increasing the lighting range of the headlight beam in relation to a maximum authorized range in accordance with the detected backscatter; and switching the headlights to a second lighting mode when the backscatter is below a first determined threshold.

Claims

1. An automatic headlight switching process designed to emit a beam of light for motor vehicle from one lighting mode to another lighting mode, comprising the following steps:

when the headlights are in a first lighting mode, detecting backscatter of the beam of light from the headlights onto a phenomenon of visibility disturbance;

increasing the lighting range of the beam of light from the headlights in relation to a maximum authorized range in accordance with the detected backscatter during said one lighting mode in order improve a lighting of said phenomenon of visibility disturbance to enable the backscatter to be measured;

measuring a visibility distance of said backscatter in response to said increase in said lighting range of the beam of light;

switching the headlights from said one lighting mode to a second lighting mode (MOD_R) once the backscatter reaches a first determined threshold.

2. The automatic switching process according to claim 1, wherein the first determined threshold is determined in such a way that the visibility in the second lighting mode exceeds the visibility in the first lighting mode.

3. The automatic switching process according to claim 1, wherein the backscatter detection step is carried out by measuring a visibility distance.

4. The automatic switching process according to claim 3, wherein the lighting range is increased in accordance with the detected backscatter in such a way as to be able to measure the visibility distance up to a first visibility threshold, if the visibility distance measured is in excess of a second visibility threshold.

5. The automatic switching process according to claim 1, according to which the backscatter detection step is carried out by analyzing a curve of greyness levels obtained from an acquired image of the environment of motor vehicle.

6. The automatic switching process according to claim 5, according to which analysis of a curve of greyness levels involves determining an area within said curve, and detecting backscatter in accordance with at least one first surface threshold value in said area.

7. The automatic switching process according to claim 6, according to which the lighting range is increased in accordance with the detected backscatter in such a way as to be able to measure an area within said curve up to a first surface threshold, if the area reaches a second surface threshold value.

8. The automatic switching process according to claim 5, according to which the analysis of the curve of greyness levels involves determining at least one tangent to said curve, and detecting backscatter in accordance with at least one first inclination threshold value from a guiding coefficient of said at least one tangent.

9. The automatic switching process according to claim 8, according to which the lighting range is increased in accordance with the detected backscatter in such a way as to be able to measure a guiding coefficient from at least one tangent in said curve to a first inclination threshold, if the coefficient reaches a second inclination threshold value.

10. The automatic switching process according to claim 9, according to which it also involves a further step of authorizing the automatic switching of headlights from the first lighting mode to the second lighting mode once the backscatter reaches the first determined threshold.

11. The automatic switching process according to claim 1, according to which it also involves a further step of switching the headlights to the first lighting mode with a view to reducing backscatter of the beam of light from the headlights onto a phenomenon of visibility disturbance once the detected backscatter reaches a third threshold.

12. The automatic switching process according to claim 11, according to which it also involves a further step of prohibiting the automatic switching of the headlights from the first lighting mode to the second lighting mode once the detected backscatter reaches a third threshold.

13. The automatic switching process according to claim 11, according to which the headlights in the first lighting mode are switched, increasing the lighting range in relation to the maximum authorized range.

14. The automatic switching process according to claim 13, according to which the lighting range of the beam of light from the headlights is decreased as and when the backscatter increases.

15. The automatic switching process according to claim 1, according to which the lighting range is increased by using an elevation angle correction function to detect the beam of light from the headlights when motor vehicle is at a horizontal attitude.

16. The automatic switching process according to claim 1, according to which the lighting range is increased by using an interception function on part of the beam of light from the headlights.

17. A computer program product including one or more sequences of instructions executable by an information processing unit, the execution of which sequences of instructions makes it possible to commission the procedure according to claim 1.

18. An automatic headlight switching device designed to emit a beam of light for motor vehicle from one lighting mode to another lighting mode, comprising:

a unit of increase of a lighting range of a beam of light from the headlights in relation to a maximum authorized range (BM) in accordance with a detected backscatter during said one lighting mode in order to improve a lighting of a phenomenon of visibility disturbance to enable said detected backscatter to be measured; and

a control unit in order to;

measure a visibility distance of said detected backscatter in response to said increase in said lighting rage of the beam of light; and

detect backscatter of the beam of light from the headlights onto a phenomenon of visibility disturbance, when the headlights are in a first lighting mode; and

switch the headlights to a second lighting mode once the backscatter reaches a first determined threshold.

19. The automatic switching device according to claim 18, according to which the unit of increase of the lighting range of the beam of light from the headlights involves a motor vehicle attitude corrector.