Koito Manufacturing Company, Ltd.

Other

Aisin Aw Co., Ltd.

Shoji Kobayashi

Takashi Inoue

Kazuhiro Suzuki

Masaaki Ishikawa

Takeshi Masuda

Hiroyuki Ishida

Motohiro Komatsu

Hirohiko Ohshio

Toshihisa Hayami

Atsushi Sugimoto

Toshiaki Niwa

Hideki Uchida

Toshihiro Shiimado

Yutaka Nakanishi

Akiyosi Ozaki

Toshihiro Shimado

Tomoaki Ikeyama

Hidetada Sugiyama

An automotive headlamp apparatus includes a light source, in which a plurality of LED chips are arranged at intervals from each other, and a projection lens for projecting the light, emitted from the light source, toward a front area of a vehicle as a light source image. The semiconductor light-emitting elements may be located within than a focal point of the projection lens. The LED chip is arranged such that the light emitting surface of the LED chip faces the front area of the vehicle. The light emitting surface of the LED chip may be of a rectangular shape and the LED chip may be arranged such that a side of the light emitting surface is at a slant with respect to the vehicle width direction.

Automotive headlamp apparatus

A vehicular headlamp includes a projection lens, a light source, a reflector, and a liquid crystal shutter. The liquid crystal shutter includes a pair of transparent plates, a liquid crystal member, and a pair of polarization plates. The liquid crystal member is disposed only in a part of an area between the pair of transparent plates. The pair of polarization plates are disposed only in an area of the outer surface of the pair of transparent plates corresponding to an area in which the liquid crystal member is disposed. The area in which the liquid crystal member is disposed includes a first area for blocking a part of reflected light from the reflector such that light emitted from the projection lens forms a low-beam distribution pattern having a cut-off line at an upper end edge, and a second area for blocking light emitted from the projection lens and then reflected by a road surface ahead of a vehicle toward a space above the cut-off line.

Vehicular headlamp

A headlamp control device is provided. The device includes a visual object luminance unit, an adapted state unit, a recognition limit unit, a visual object recognition unit, and a light distribution control unit. The visual object luminance unit estimates a visual object luminance based on information about a vehicle forward captured image. The adapted state unit estimates an adaptation luminance based on the information about the vehicle forward captured image. The recognition limit unit estimates a recognition limit luminance, in the visual object range, based on at least the adaptation luminance. The visual object recognition unit determines whether the visual object luminance is less than the recognition limit luminance. The light distribution control unit controls a light distribution of a headlamp unit such that the visual object luminance is included in a range of the recognition limit luminance, if the visual object luminance is less than the recognition limit luminance.

Headlamp control device and vehicle headlamp having headlamp control device

A headlamp controller includes: a headlamp unit configured to illuminate a front area of a vehicle with a light distribution pattern; an image capturing camera configured to capture an image of the front area; and a light distribution controller including: a road shape detecting unit configured to detect a road shape based on the captured image; a reference optical flow generating unit configured to generate a reference optical flow for a target object belonging to one of attributes based on the road shape; a bright point optical flow measuring unit configured to measure an optical flow of a bright point defined as a target in the captured image; and an attribute determining unit configured to compare the reference optical flow with the optical flow of the bright point and determine which one of the attributes the optical flow of the bright point belongs.

Headlamp controller

A vehicle lighting systemreads position data of a plurality of nodes which are situated ahead of and behind the current position of a cruising vehicle using vehicle current position data and road map data to estimate the shape of a driving path by connecting the plurality of nodes via an interpolation process. Then, as to nodes which are recognized as change points of the shape of the driving path by a road node characteristic position detecting device, for example, a bending point or inflecting point, and a starting point and a terminating point of a curve path, a transition range is set ahead of and behind the nodes by a transition range setting device. Then, when the cruising vehicle runs through the range so set, a control quantity related to the illumination control of a vehicle headlampis made to be changed slowly.

Lighting system for vehicle

A vehicular headlamp apparatus 1 is provided with a first and a second light-emitting portion including a common light source 3 or a plurality of light sources 3 and 3'. The first light-emitting portion 2_1 forms a base beam by normally lighting the light source 3 to use emission light from the light source. The second light-emitting portion 2_2 is caused to emit an auxiliary beam for supplementing the light distribution of the base beam made available by the first light-emitting portion 2_1. The distribution, the quantity of light or light color of the light emitted from the first light-emitting portion 2_1 is varied with the travel condition or travel environment of a vehicle.

Vehicular headlamp apparatus

It is an object to reliably decide the running area of a vehicle and to carry out suitable irradiation control for the area. This invention provides a lighting devicefor a vehicle including irradiation control meansfor deciding a running area based on position information obtained by vehicle current-position detecting meansand road information obtained by road information acquiring meansand for carrying out irradiation control of a lighting tool for a vehicle according to a result of the decision. For road information, a current running area (a high-speed running area, an urban area) is decided based on information in the current position of a vehicle and information about a road over which the vehicle has already run or the same information and information about the forward place of the vehicle.

Lighting device for vehicle

A projection-type headlamp serving also as an infrared light-emitting lamp assuring a sufficient intensity of infrared light irradiation ahead of a vehicle while preventing glare to oncoming vehicles in the adjacent lane. The headlamp is provided with an ellipsoidal reflector, a light source, a shade in the form of an infrared light-transmitting film for reflecting visible light and while allowing infrared light to pass through, and a projection lens for forming simultaneously a predetermined visible light beam pattern and a predetermined infrared light beam pattern, in which an upper edge portion of the shade is positioned above the optical axis of the reflector. A cut line and a hot zone of the visible light beam pattern are set beneath the horizontal line on a light distribution screen so that the visible light beam cannot cause glare for drivers of oncoming vehicles in the opposite lane, and a hot zone of the infrared light beam pattern is set on the horizontal line on the light distribution screen. With this arrangement, the infrared light beam reaches a long distance, and the imaging performance of an infrared noctovision camera is enhanced

Projection-type headlamp also having infrared light emitting function

In a vehicle headlamp apparatus , there are provided a map information acquiring means for acquiring positional information on one's own vehicle on a map and the environmental information, and an environmental condition detection means for detecting an environmental condition relating to a traveling road on which one's own vehicle is driven according image information or the information acquired from a radar. The light distribution control means of a lighting device performs light distribution control over the headlamp according to more reliable one of both kinds of information adopted with the priority given thereto out of the information derived from the map information acquiring means and the information detected by the environmental condition detection means or according to the information complemented with both kinds of information described above.

Vehicle headlamp apparatus

In such a state that a self-vehicle runs along a guide route (YES in S ), if an intersection is not present in a forward part for a while (NO in S ), beam control is carried out in a navigation associating mode corresponding to the guide route (S ). Consequently, beam irradiation is properly carried out over a road provided ahead of the vehicle without requiring a complicated calculation for the beam control. On the other hand, if the intersection is present in the forward part of the guide route (YES in S ), the beam control is carried out in a normal mode (a control mode other than the navigation associating mode) (S ). Consequently, even if the self-vehicle gets out of the guide route when passing through the intersection, the beam control itself is performed continuously and the beam irradiation is properly executed over the road provided ahead of the vehicle.

Headlamp system for vehicle

Beam control over headlamps is performed with the arriving position, a predetermined time later from the present time, as a target position. At this time, the radius of curvature of a traveling road ahead of a vehicle is calculated on the basis of data from a navigation unit, and the arriving position of one's own vehicle is estimated on the basis of an advisable vehicle speed corresponding to the radius of curvature. Thus, the arriving position of one's own vehicle can accurately be estimated by taking into consideration variation in vehicle speed that is likely to occur in the near future.

Vehicle headlamp system

A light distribution control apparatus which is less affected by an error in a navigation function, and conducts a proper light distribution. An illuminated area and a glare quantity are controlled according to a determination on a traveling region of a vehicle (an expressway, a general road, or an urban region), and an illuminating direction is controlled according to a determination on a road shape. On the other hand, a navigation processor determines reliabilities of current position detection, and a vehicle position based on road data, and determines a reliability of the road shape and a reliability of the traveling region. A base illuminated area and a medium glare are selected when the reliability of the traveling region is low, an illuminated area according to the traveling region is selected and the glare quantity is decreased when the reliability is medium, and an illuminated area and a glare quantity according to the traveling region are selected when the reliability is high. A light distribution angle &thgr; hs according to a steering angle is selected when the reliability of the road shape is low, and a light distribution angle &thgr; hn for illuminating a vehicle position after T seconds is selected when the reliability is high.

Light distribution control apparatus

An infrared-ray radiating lamp which is prevented from being mistaken for a tail lamp or a stop lamp by ensuring that not only infrared rays but also visible rays are emanated from a front lens simultaneously. The lamp includes a lighting chamber defined by a lamp body and a front lens, a reflector disposed in the lighting chamber, and infrared-ray radiation means and visible-ray radiation means disposed in front of the reflector in the lighting chamber. The infrared rays radiated from the infrared-ray radiation means and the visible rays radiated from the visible-ray radiation means are emanated from the front lens simultaneously when the lamp is lit. Thus, the rays distributed by the lamp include both red infrared rays and white visible rays, and therefore a red color is not particularly noticeable. Thus, the infrared-ray radiating lamp when lit is not mistaken for a tail lamp or a stop lamp.

Infrared-ray radiating lamp for automobile

Beams from headlamps are controlled by a beam control ECU. The beam control ECU has a road-configuration-corresponding mode and a corresponding-turning-angle mode. In the road-configuration-corresponding mode, beam control is performed according to the detected results of a road configuration ahead of a vehicle. In the corresponding-turning-angle mode, beam control is performed according the detected results of the turning angle of the vehicle. One of these modes is selected in response to the vehicle speed. Thus, the beam emitting direction is prevented from being inadvertently changed-irrespective of the rise and fall of vehicle speed-through the actuation of a direction indicator or a steering operation.

A lane mark irradiation lamp forming a pair of light distribution patterns on left and right sides of the road surface ahead of a vehicle. The light distribution patterns are formed so as to extend along the lane marks provided on the road, and the luminous intensity distribution of the light distribution patterns in lateral direction in a first angle position that is in a downward direction at a predetermined angle with respect to a longitudinal axis of the lamp is set so as to have peaks on both sides of such a longitudinal axis.

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Shizuoka, Japan

Shoji Kobayashi