Method and device for controlling a headlight system of a vehicle

• US 9,260,052 B2
• Filed: 04/20/2012
• Issued: 02/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Ehlgen, Tobias, Van Staa, Sebastian
• Primary Examiner(s): Cole, Brandon S
• Application Number:
  US14/114,176
• Publication Number:
  US 20140125227A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,397 Days
• Field of Search: 315 76- 84
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/0023 the element being a sensor, e.g. distance sensor, camera
• 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 1/143 combined with another condition, e.g. using vehicle recognition from camera images or activation of wipers
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 2300/312 Adverse weather
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10024 Color image
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30192 Weather; Meteorology
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30252 Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/44 using image operators, e.g. filters, edge density metrics or local histograms
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/90 Determination of colour characteristics

Abstract

A method is described for controlling a headlight system of a vehicle. The method includes a step of reading in an aerosol signal which represents a recognized intensity of an aerosol in a field of vision of a camera of the vehicle. Furthermore, the method includes a step of activating a change in a light emission in a lighting area ahead of the vehicle with the aid of the headlight system as a response to the aerosol signal.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a headlight system of a vehicle, comprising:

reading in an aerosol signal representing a recognized intensity of an aerosol in a field of vision of a camera of the vehicle;

activating a change in a light emission in a lighting area ahead of the vehicle with an aid of the headlight system as a response to the aerosol signal;

reading in image information of an image of the camera;

performing at least one of providing a color indicator value for at least one partial section of the image of the camera, and providing a gradient indicator value that represents a difference in brightness, derivable from the image information, of different image areas of the image of the camera; and

determining an aerosol intensity value by using at least one of the color indicator value and the gradient indicator value to determine and provide the intensity of the aerosol in the field of vision of the camera of the vehicle as the aerosol signal.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein a change in a light emission parameter is one of determined and activated in the step of activating as a function of a time of presence of the aerosol.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the time of presence corresponds to a presence of a predetermined minimum intensity of the aerosol.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein a change in a light distribution is activated in the step of activating in the case of an active light emission control as a function of the recognized intensity of the aerosol.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein a change in a light emission parameter for a light output by the headlight system of the vehicle is activated between different lighting states in the step of activating.

6. A method for controlling a headlight system of a vehicle, comprising:

reading in an aerosol signal representing a recognized intensity of an aerosol in a field of vision of a camera of the vehicle;

activating a change in a light emission in a lighting area ahead of the vehicle with an aid of the headlight system as a response to the aerosol signal; and

reading in image information of an image of the camera;

performing at least one of;

providing a color indicator value for at least one partial section of the image of the camera, wherein;

the color indicator value represents a relation between a first parameter and a second parameter,

the first parameter represents a value obtained by using a first color filter on the image information in the partial section, and

the second parameter represents a value which is obtained one of by not using the first color filter and by using a second color filter that is different from the first color filter on the image information in the partial section, and

providing a gradient indicator value that represents a difference in brightness, derivable from the image information, of different image areas of the image of the camera; and

determining an aerosol intensity value by using at least one of the color indicator value and the gradient indicator value in order to determine and provide the intensity of the aerosol in the field of vision of the camera of the vehicle as the aerosol signal.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the difference in brightness is of adjacent image areas of the image of the camera.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the first parameter represents a value obtained by using a first color filter on the image information in the partial section.

9. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the second parameter represents a value which is obtained one of by not using the first color filter and by using a second color filter that is different from the first color filter on the image information in the partial section.

10. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein in the step of determining, the aerosol intensity value is determined using a linear combination.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the linear combination includes a weighted linear combination from the color indicator value and the gradient indicator value.

12. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein in the step of determining, at least one of:

the color indicator value in an area between color indicator limiting values is normalized, and

the gradient indicator value in an area between gradient indicator limiting values is normalized prior to determining the aerosol intensity value.

13. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein in the step of providing the color indicator value, a color indicator value is provided in which one of the first color filter and the second color filter is a color filter which filters out red portions in the image information.

14. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein in the step of determining, an aerosol indicator value is determined and is represented by a scalar.

15. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein in the step of determining, the gradient indicator value is determined by using image information from a center area of the image of the camera.

16. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein in the step of determining, the gradient indicator value is determined by using image information which originates from an image segment of the image which, in the case of the image of the camera being divided into nine not-overlapping image segments, is surrounded by eight of the partial sections.

17. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising:

recognizing a presence of an intensity of the aerosol, which is critical for traffic, in the field of vision of the camera of the vehicle when the aerosol intensity value is in a predetermined relation to a threshold value.

18. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the color indicator value represents a relation between a first parameter and a second parameter.

19. A device for controlling a headlight system of a vehicle, the device comprising:

an interface for reading in an aerosol signal that represents a recognized intensity of an aerosol in a field of vision of a camera of the vehicle; and

a unit for activating a change in a light emission in a lighting area ahead of the vehicle with an aid of the headlight system as a response to the aerosol signal; and

a reading arrangement for reading in image information of an image of the camera;

a providing arrangement for at least one of providing a color indicator value for at least one partial section of the image of the camera, and providing a gradient indicator value that represents a difference in brightness, derivable from the image information, of different image areas of the image of the camera; and

a determining arrangement to determine an aerosol intensity value by using at least one of the color indicator value and the gradient indicator value to determine and provide the intensity of the aerosol in the field of vision of the camera of the vehicle as the aerosol signal.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium having a computer program, which is executable by a processor, comprising:

a program code arrangement having program code for controlling a headlight system of a vehicle by performing the following;

reading in an aerosol signal representing a recognized intensity of an aerosol in a field of vision of a camera of the vehicle;

activating a change in a light emission in a lighting area ahead of the vehicle with an aid of the headlight system as a response to the aerosol signal;

reading in image information of an image of the camera;

performing at least one of providing a color indicator value for at least one partial section of the image of the camera, and providing a gradient indicator value that represents a difference in brightness, derivable from the image information, of different image areas of the image of the camera; and

determining an aerosol intensity value by using at least one of the color indicator value and the gradient indicator value to determine and provide the intensity of the aerosol in the field of vision of the camera of the vehicle as the aerosol signal.