Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Denso Corporation

Kazuya Asaoka

Sho Masuda

Keiichi Shimaoka

Shigeyoshi Hiratsuka

Nobuyuki Shiraki

Shin-ichi Kojima

Kazunori Higuchi

Toshihiko Tsukada

Shinichi Kojima

Kazuhiko Nakashima

Koichi Kato

Naohito Kato

Takahito Nishii

Shin-Ichi Kojima

An illumination apparatus for a vehicle includes a projector configured to project an image of visible light; an obstacle detection apparatus configured to detect an obstacle; and a processing apparatus configured to predict a travel area of the vehicle after a predetermined time or a predetermined distance of travel, project a first image with the projector in the predicted travel area upon no obstacle in the predicted travel area being detected by the obstacle detection apparatus, and project a second image, which is different from the first image, with the projector in the predicted travel area upon the obstacle in the predicted travel area being detected by the obstacle detection apparatus.

Illumination apparatus for vehicle

An illumination apparatus for a vehicle includes a projector configured to project an image of visible light; and a processing apparatus configured to predict a travel area of the vehicle after a predetermined time or a predetermined distance of travel, and project an image in the predicted travel area with the projector for illumination of the travel area, the image being indicative of a travel state of the vehicle or a control state of the vehicle.

A vehicle headlamp control device includes a headlamp that irradiates an area in front of a vehicle, a camera that captures an image of the area in front of the vehicle, a pedestrian detection portion configured to detect a pedestrian in front of the vehicle from an image captured by the camera, and a control portion configured to control the headlamp and cause the headlamp to irradiate the pedestrian so that a given-shaped part that is not irradiated is formed at a location of an eye of the pedestrian, or a given-shaped part irradiated by dimmed light is formed at the location of the eye of the pedestrian.

Vehicle headlamp control device

A vehicle headlamp device includes headlamps, which are structured so as to be able to project or irradiate given patterns and given shapes without distortion on a given virtual surface in front of a vehicle from a left headlight and a right headlight, respectively, a camera that captures an image of the area in front of the vehicle, and a state detecting portion configured to detect distortion of the given patterns, which are projected or irradiated on an irradiated surface in front of the vehicle, relative to the given patterns projected or irradiated on the given virtual surface in front of the vehicle, based on the captured image, and also detect a state of the irradiated surface based on the distortion, and a correcting portion configured to correct a relative optical axis deviation between the left headlight and the right headlight.

Vehicle headlamp device

An irradiation apparatus includes a shielded object detecting unit, an illumination setting unit, an irradiating device, and an illumination controlling unit. The shielded object detecting unit detects a shielded object. Glare is allowable to the shielded object at an upper limit of illumination brightness or less. A driver can visually recognize the shielded object at an lower limit of the illumination brightness or more. The illumination setting unit sets the illumination brightness based on the upper limit and the lower limit of the illumination brightness. The illumination controlling unit controls the irradiating device such that light is emitted in a predetermined irradiation pattern in which a first part of the shielded object is illuminated at the illumination brightness set by the illumination setting unit and a second part of the shielded object is illuminated at a higher illumination brightness than that of the first part.

Irradiation apparatus

A headlight control device provided in a vehicle to perform headlight control and to control a distribution of light irradiated from a light source is provided. The headlight control device includes: a determination unit that determines a presence and an absence of an obstacle in front of the vehicle and determines a position of the obstacle; a setting unit that sets up an area covering the obstacle as an intensified illumination area when the determination unit determines the presence of the obstacle, wherein the intensified illumination area is an area to which the light from the light source is irradiated in a manner different than a peripheral area of the intensified illumination area; and a controller that controls the distribution of the light irradiated from the light source so that the intensified illumination area set up by the setting unit has an illuminated zone and a non-illuminated zone.

Headlight control device and headlight

A light source detector detects, from a vehicle, a light source that exists outside the vehicle. A light reactive sheet is arranged in a planar form and is located in front of the driver driving the vehicle. The light reactive sheet changes color in response to light having a specific frequency. A light source position calculating unit calculates a light source position on the surface of the light reactive sheet based on output of the light source detector. A light emitter emits light having the specific frequency from the inside of the vehicle to the light reactive sheet based on the calculated light source position.

Anti-glare apparatus having light emitted from inside a moving vehicle to a light reactive member

An illumination system includes: a light irradiation unit that projects light toward a predetermined illumination area; an image acquisition unit that acquires an image of the illumination area; an object detecting unit that detects a shading object based on image information of the illumination area, acquired by the image acquisition unit; an information generating unit that generates the control information for setting each of the plurality of reflecting mirrors to an on state or an off state such that a plurality of irradiation patterns are alternately irradiated, each of the plurality of irradiation patterns having different arrangement of the dark pixels and the light pixels from each other; and an irradiation control unit that controls the light irradiation unit based on the generated control information.

Illumination system for generating a boundary between a shaded area and an irradiated area

An irradiation system includes: a light position detection unit that detects a light position of an oncoming vehicle from a captured image; a driver position calculation unit that calculates a position upward and shifted in a first direction by a first distance from the light position detected by the light position detection unit, as a driver position; a shaded area generation unit that generates a first area having vertices respectively set at the light position, the driver position and a position shifted in a second direction, opposite to the first direction, by a distance between a pair of lights in the predetermined vehicle from the driver position, as a shaded area; and an irradiation unit that irradiates an area ahead of the host vehicle while shading the shaded area generated by the shaded area generation unit.

Irradiation system that controls headlamps of a vehicle

A projection system includes: a position detecting section that detects the position of a target object located in front of a host vehicle; and a control section which, on the basis of the position of the target object detected by the position detecting section, controls a headlamp so as to project onto the position of the target object a projection pattern that moves in a direction corresponding to the direction of motion of a background at the position of the target object or a direction corresponding to the opposite direction of the direction of motion of the background.

Growing community of inventors

Seto, Japan

Kazuya Asaoka