Nissan Motor Company Limited

Alpha Corporation

Wataru Hirai

Takashi Ono

Kazuya Tanaka

Shun Rai

Jun Endo

The purpose of this invention is to provide a vehicular reflective optical sensor that has improved control reliability. Said vehicular reflective optical sensor is provided with a control unit () that: emits detection light () at prescribed intervals from a light-emitting unit () on an exterior panel of a vehicle towards a detection region () set outside said vehicle; tests for a threshold-exceeded state in which the amount of light in a light reflection () received from the detection region () by a light-receiving unit () exceeds a prescribed detection threshold; and, if it is detected that a detection target has entered the detection region (), outputs a detection-confirmation signal. The control unit () uses, as the aforementioned detection threshold, the sum of a predetermined fixed value and an adjustment value comprising a summary statistic for the amounts of light in an appropriate number of light reflections () preceding the light reflection () on which the comparison is being performed.

Vehicular reflective optical sensor

An object of the present invention is to provide a photosensor unit with a structure which is simple and also does not cause decrease in detection accuracy. Provided is a photosensor unit including a light emitting elementand a light receiving elementhoused in a unit caseand configured such that reflected light of detection light emitted from the light emitting elementto the outside of the unit caseis received with the light receiving elementthe reflected light being reflected from the outside of the unit caseA plurality of the light emitting elementsare disposed around the light receiving elementand a passage space for the reflected light inside the unit caseis separated from a passage space for the detection light inside the unit caseby an appropriate partition

Photosensor unit with a condensing lens including a plurality of light-emitting convex lens

An object of the present invention is to provide a photosensor lens which, in the case of using a plurality of light emitting elements to form a reflective photosensor, can maximize the efficiency of light irradiation of the light emitting elements with a simple structure. Provided is a photosensor lens configured to condense irradiation light from a plurality of light emitting elementshoused in a unit casein a detection regionoutside the unit case, and to condense reflected light from the detection regionat a light receiving elementin the unit case. A single convex lens surfaceis formed on one side of the photosensor lens, and a light-receiving convex lens surfacesharing an optical axis with the single convex lens surface, and a plurality of light-emitting convex lens surfaceseach having an optical axis in parallel with the optical axis of the light-receiving convex lens surfaceare integrally formed on the opposite side of the photosensor lens.

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Atsugi, Japan

Wataru Hirai