Method for controlling a light emission of a headlight of a vehicle

• US 20130051618A1
• Filed: 08/22/2012
• Published: 02/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Johannes Foltin
• Original Assignee: Johannes Foltin
• Inventors: FOLTIN, Johannes
• Granted Patent: US 9,428,103 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• 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 2300/45 Special conditions, e.g. pedestrians, road signs or potential dangers

Abstract

A method for controlling a light emission of at least one headlight of a vehicle, which has a traffic sign recognition device. The method includes receiving at least one traffic sign recognition signal from an interface to the traffic sign recognition device. In this instance, the at least one traffic sign recognition signal represents a traffic sign recognized in a course of the road currently being traveled by the vehicle. The method also includes setting a debounce time and/or a debounce stretch for a change in the light emission of the at least one headlight between first and second radiation characteristics as a function of the at least one traffic sign recognition signal. Finally, the method includes delaying the change in the light emission of the at least one headlight by the debounce time set and/or the debounce stretch set, to control light emission of the at least one headlight.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a light emission of at least one headlight of a vehicle, which has a traffic sign recognition device, the method comprising:

receiving at least one traffic sign recognition signal from an interface to the traffic sign recognition device, the at least one traffic sign recognition signal representing a traffic sign recognized in a course of road currently being traveled by the vehicle;

setting at least one of a debounce time and a debounce stretch for a change in the light emission of the at least one headlight between a first radiation characteristic and a second radiation characteristic as a function of the at least one traffic sign recognition signal; and

delaying the change of the light emission of the at least one headlight by the at least one of the debounce time set and the debounce stretch set, so as to control the light emission of the at least one headlight.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

evaluating the at least one traffic sign recognition signal, so as to determine at least one property of the course of the road currently being traveled by the vehicle.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one property of the course of the road being currently traveled by the vehicle has at least one of a road course-conditioned range of vision and/or a design speed of the course of the road being currently traveled by the vehicle.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

assigning a setting value to the at least one traffic sign recognition signal based on the at least one property of the course of the road currently being traveled by the vehicle, in the setting operation, the at least one of the debounce time and the debounce stretch being able to be set as a function of the at least one traffic sign recognition signal and with the aid of the setting value assigned to the at least one traffic sign recognition signal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein in the receiving operation at least one additional traffic sign recognition signal from an interface to the traffic sign recognition device is received, the at least one additional traffic sign recognition signal representing at least one additional traffic sign recognized in a course of the road actually being traveled by the vehicle, and in the setting operation, the at least one of the debounce time and the debounce stretch is set as a function of the traffic sign recognition signal and the at least one additional traffic sign recognition signal.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

combining the traffic sign recognition signal and the at least one additional traffic sign recognition signal, so as to generate a combined traffic sign recognition signal, in the setting operation, the at least one of the debounce time and the debounce stretch being set as a function of the combined traffic sign recognition signal.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the setting operation, the at least one of the debounce time and the debounce stretch is set as a function of the traffic sign recognition signal and as a function of at least one of travel data of the vehicle and environmental information.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

checking the at least one of the debounce time set and the debounce stretch set for plausibility with the aid of at least one of travel data of the vehicle and environmental information and a correcting of the at least one of the debounce time and the debounce stretch that is set, based on the at least one of travel data of the vehicle and the environmental information, if in the checking operation, there is a lack of plausibility of the at least one of the set debounce time and the debounce stretch.

9. A device for controlling a light emission of at least one headlight of a vehicle, which has a traffic sign recognition device, comprising:

a receiving arrangement to receive at least one traffic sign recognition signal from an interface to the traffic sign recognition device, the at least one traffic sign recognition signal representing a traffic sign recognized in a course of road currently being traveled by the vehicle;

a setting arrangement to set at least one of a debounce time and a debounce stretch for a change in the light emission of the at least one headlight between a first radiation characteristic and a second radiation characteristic as a function of the at least one traffic sign recognition signal; and

a delaying arrangement to delay the change of the light emission of the at least one headlight by the at least one of the debounce time set and the debounce stretch set, so as to control the light emission of the at least one headlight.

10. A computer readable medium having a computer program, which is executable by a processor, comprising:

a program code arrangement having program code for controlling a light emission of at least one headlight of a vehicle, which has a traffic sign recognition device, by performing the following;

receiving at least one traffic sign recognition signal from an interface to the traffic sign recognition device, the at least one traffic sign recognition signal representing a traffic sign recognized in a course of road currently being traveled by the vehicle;

setting at least one of a debounce time and a debounce stretch for a change in the light emission of the at least one headlight between a first radiation characteristic and a second radiation characteristic as a function of the at least one traffic sign recognition signal; and

delaying the change of the light emission of the at least one headlight by the at least one of the debounce time set and the debounce stretch set, so as to control the light emission of the at least one headlight.