Vehicle lighting device and lighting method
First Claim
1. A lighting method comprising:
- lighting an outside of a vehicle;
detecting at least one white lane marker that reflects light on a road on which the vehicle travels;
determining a white lane marker that is apart from the vehicle by at least a predetermined distance, among the detected at least one white lane marker; and
causing light distribution to the determined white lane marker to be relatively darker than light distribution to another region in which the determined white lane marker does not exist on the road on which the vehicle travels;
wherein the predetermined distance includes a predetermined braking distance by which the vehicle travels from when a vehicle speed begins to decrease by a braking force applied to the vehicle until when the vehicle speed becomes zero.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The light distribution region of headlights (12) is divided into a plurality of regions, and each of the divided regions can be irradiated or non-irradiated by light, and the light distribution characteristic can be changed separately for each divided region. The radiation or non-radiation of light to each divided region is controlled by a light distribution control ECU (14). Besides, light reflection/emission regions (hatched portions in FIG. 4) are detected by detecting light regions of reflection, such as white lines, reflectors, etc., and light regions of light emission, such as street lights or the like, are detected. Then, divided regions corresponding to light distribution region irradiated by the headlights (12) which correspond to the detected light reflection/emission regions are specifically determined, and the headlights (12) are controlled so that the light radiated to the specifically determined divided regions 22 becomes dark in light distribution relative to other regions.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A lighting method comprising:
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lighting an outside of a vehicle; detecting at least one white lane marker that reflects light on a road on which the vehicle travels; determining a white lane marker that is apart from the vehicle by at least a predetermined distance, among the detected at least one white lane marker; and causing light distribution to the determined white lane marker to be relatively darker than light distribution to another region in which the determined white lane marker does not exist on the road on which the vehicle travels; wherein the predetermined distance includes a predetermined braking distance by which the vehicle travels from when a vehicle speed begins to decrease by a braking force applied to the vehicle until when the vehicle speed becomes zero. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27)
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2. A vehicle lighting device comprising:
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a vehicle illuminator that changes light distribution characteristic separately for each of a plurality of divided regions of a light distribution region; a detection device that detects at least one white lane marker that reflects light on a road on which the vehicle travels; and a determination device for determining a white lane marker that is apart from the vehicle by at least a predetermined distance, among the at least one white lane marker detected by the detection device, a control device that controls the vehicle illuminator so that the white lane marker determined by the determination device has a dark light distribution relative to another region in which the determined white lane marker does not exist on the road on which the vehicle travels; and wherein the predetermined distance includes a predetermined braking distance by which the vehicle travels from when a vehicle speed begins to decrease by a braking force applied to the vehicle until when the vehicle speed becomes zero. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 28, 29)
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11. A vehicle lighting device comprising:
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a vehicle illuminator that changes light distribution characteristic separately for each of plurality of divided regions of a light distribution region; a detection device that detects a white lane marker that reflects light on a road on which the vehicle travels; a control device that controls the vehicle illuminator so that, in a light distribution region that is lighted by the vehicle illuminator, the light distribution to the white lane marker detected by the detection device becomes relatively darker than the light distribution to another region in which the white lane marker does not exist on the road on which the vehicle travels; and rain determination device that determines whether or not it is raining, wherein the control device prohibits a control of the vehicle illuminator, if it is determined by the rain determination device that it is raining. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A lighting method comprising:
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lighting an outside of a vehicle; detecting a white lane marker that reflects light on a road on which the vehicle travels; causing light distribution to the white lane marker in a light distribution region that is lighted to be relatively darker than the light distribution to another region in which the white lane marker does not exist on the road on which the vehicle travels; determining whether or not it is raining; and prohibiting a control of the lighting the outside of the vehicle, if it is determined that it is raining.
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Specification