Vehicle with headlight control

• US 10,025,424 B2
• Filed: 08/15/2016
• Issued: 07/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Cruz Solis, Fernando, Garcia, Tania, Montes, Jhammel, Amador, Hector
• Primary Examiner(s): Dinh, Duc Q
• Application Number:
  US15/237,130
• Publication Number:
  US 20180046310A1
• Time in Patent Office: 701 Days
• Field of Search: 701 41, 701 42, 701 69, 701 72, 701 74
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/0023 the element being a sensor, e.g. distance sensor, camera
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/08 automatically
• 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 2200/38 Automatic calibration of motor-driven means for adjusting headlamps, i.e. when switching on the headlamps, not during mounting at factories
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/21 Manual control
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 1/24 in front of the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/50 characterised by the display information being shared, e.g. external display, data transfer to other traffic participants or centralised traffic controller
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0412 Digitisers structurally integrated in a display
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/58 Recognition of moving objects or obstacles, e.g. vehicles or pedestrians; Recognition of traffic objects, e.g. traffic signs, traffic lights or roads

Abstract

A vehicle including: a headlight that produces a beam, a touchscreen, a camera, processor(s) configured to: (a) display images captured by the camera on the touchscreen; (b) recast the beam according to touch inputs on the images; (c) disable (b) when the vehicle exceeds a predetermined speed; (d) recast the beam by sweeping the beam from an original position to a final position.

Claims

1. A vehicle comprising:

a headlight configured to produce a beam;

a camera configured to capture images in front of the vehicle;

a touchscreen configured to display the images; and

processor(s) configured to;

(a) display the images captured by the camera on the touchscreen;

(b) control the headlight to move the beam according to touch inputs on the images; and

(c) disable (b) when the vehicle exceeds a predetermined speed.

2. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the processor(s) are configured to:

recast the beam by sweeping the beam from an original position to a final position.

3. The vehicle of claim 2, wherein the headlight includes a main headlight and a plurality of supplemental headlights, and the processor(s) are configured to sweep the beam from the original position to the final position by sequencing through a series of beams, each beam of the series of beams being associated with a power level to the main headlight and each of the plurality of supplemental headlights.

4. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the processor(s) are configured to:

recast the beam according to a calibration map.

5. The vehicle of claim 4, wherein the calibration map divides the images into a plurality of zones.

6. The vehicle of claim 5, wherein a plurality of the zones are each associated with a single beam and wherein a plurality of the zones are each associated with no beam.

7. The vehicle of claim 6, wherein the processor(s) are configured to:

control the headlight to produce the single beams, each single beam either being associated with (a) power level(s) to the headlight or (b) an angle of the headlight.

8. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the processor(s) are configured to:

recast the beam by sequencing the headlight through a plurality of beams, including an original beam, intermediate beams, and a final beam.

9. The vehicle of claim 8, wherein each of the original beam, the intermediate beams, and the final beams are associated different power levels to the headlight.

10. The vehicle of claim 8, wherein the processor(s) are configured to:

recast the beam according to a calibration map dividing the images into a plurality of zones, including a first zone, second zones, and a third zone.

11. The vehicle of claim 10, wherein the original beam is associated with the first zone, the intermediate beams are associated with the second zones, and the final beam is associated with the third zone.

12. The vehicle of claim 11, wherein the processor(s) are configured to:

determine a segment extending from the first zone to the third zone.

13. The vehicle of claim 12, wherein the processor(s) are configured to:

determine zones between the first zone and the third zone intersected by the extended segment and set the determined zones as the second zones.

14. The vehicle of claim 13, wherein the processor(s) are configured to:

for each of the second zones;

apply the second zone for a time based on a length of the segment intersecting the second zone.

15. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the headlight is a first headlight that produces a first beam and the vehicle includes a second headlight that produces a second beam;

wherein the processor(s) are configured to;

enable the first and second beams to be independently recast.

16. The vehicle of claim 15, wherein the processor(s) are configured to:

overlay boundaries corresponding to identify headlight dead areas over the images.

17. The vehicle of claim 16, wherein the processor(s) are configured to:

enable the user to place, over the images;

(a) a first icon corresponding to a first headlight only mode;

(b) a second icon corresponding to a second headlight only mode;

(c) a third icon corresponding to a dual headlight mode.

18. The vehicle of claim 17, wherein the processor(s) are configured to:

in response to a user placing the third icon in one of the identified dead areas, automatically switch the third icon to either the first icon or the second icon.

19. The vehicle of claim 1, including a directional keypad;

wherein the processor(s) are configured to;

recast the beam according to inputs on the directional keypad.

20. A method of operating a vehicle comprising:

(a) capturing, via at least one camera, images in front of the vehicle

(b) displaying the images captured by the at least one camera on a touchscreen;

(c) controlling a headlight to move a beam produced by the headlight according to touch inputs on the images; and

(d) disabling (c) when the vehicle exceeds a predetermined speed.