Glare reduction apparatus

• US 8,716,644 B2
• Filed: 07/09/2010
• Issued: 05/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Industrial Technology Research Institute
• Inventors: Wu, E-In, Wu, Tai-Chang
• Primary Examiner(s): PYO, KEVIN K
• Application Number:
  US12/833,915
• Publication Number:
  US 20110233384A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,397 Days
• Field of Search: 2502031-2034, 250/208.2, 349/13, 349/14, 351/44, 351/45, 345/7, 345/9, 359/601, 359/608, 359/611
• US Class Current: 250/208.2
• CPC Class Codes: B60J 3/04 adjustable in transparency
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 1/04 Optical or mechanical part supplementary adjustable parts
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 1/0418 using attenuators
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 1/06 Restricting the angle of incident light
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 1/26 adapted for automatic variation of the measured or reference value regulation of light intensity G05D25/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 1/4228 arrangements with two or more detectors, e.g. for sensitivity compensation
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2001/0276 Protection

Abstract

The invention provides a glare reduction apparatus disposed in an object illuminated by a light source. The glare reduction device includes an electro-optical device covering a surface of the object. A light sensing device is disposed on a first fixed point of the object. A controller is electrically coupled to the electro-optical device and the light sensing device, wherein the controller calculates a corresponding light sensing position of the electro-optical device according to a light sensing position of the light sensing device which directly receives light from the light source, to reduce the light transmittivity of the corresponding light sensing position of the electro-optical device to generate a light shielding region. The light shielding region attenuates the light from the light source to a second fixed point of the object.

Claims

1. A glare reduction apparatus disposed in an object illuminated by a light source, comprising:

an electro-optical device covering a surface of the object;

a light sensing device disposed on a first fixed point of the object; and

a controller electrically coupled to the electro-optical device and the light sensing device, wherein the controller is configured to calculate a corresponding light sensing position of the electro-optical device according to a light sensing position of the light sensing device, which directly receives light from the light source, and a position of a second fixed point of the object, to reduce the light transmittivity of the corresponding light sensing position of the electro-optical device to generate a light shielding region which attenuates the light from the light source to the second fixed point of the object.

2. The glare reduction apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the light sensing device further comprises a charge-coupled device (CCD) array used to detect the light sensing position transmitted to the controller.

3. The glare reduction apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein the light sensing device further comprises a light blocking tube disposed in front of the charge-coupled device (CCD) array, thereby the light from the light source is incident through the light blocking tube to the charge-coupled device (CCD) array in sequence.

4. The glare reduction apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the light blocking tube blocks the light being incident to the charge-coupled device (CCD) array with an incident angle.

5. The glare reduction apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the incident angle is larger than 60 degrees and less than or equal to 90 degrees of a vertical plane.

6. The glare reduction apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the light sensing device further comprises a lens to guide the light being transmitted into the charge-coupled device (CCD) array.

7. The glare reduction apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the light sensing device further comprises a filter disposed in front of the charge-coupled device (CCD) array, to incident the light from the light source through the filter to the charge-coupled device (CCD) array in sequence.

8. The glare reduction apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the light sensing device has a plurality of first pixel regions and the electro-optical device has a plurality of second pixel regions corresponding to the first pixel regions, and the controller uses a transform matrix method to define the occupied second pixel regions occupied by the corresponding light sensing position according to the occupied first pixel regions occupied by the light sensing position, to generate the light shielding region.

9. The glare reduction apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a position fine tuning switch electrically coupled to the controller, wherein the position fine tuning switch manually changes a position and a size of the light shielding region.

10. The glare reduction apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein a relative position between the first fixed point and the second fixed point is fixed.

11. The glare reduction apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein the first fixed point is located between the light source and the second fixed point.

12. The glare reduction apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the object is a vehicle, and the electro-optical device covers a surface of a windshield glass of the vehicle, and the second fixed point is located on a drivers seat headrest of the vehicle.