4050results about "Signalling/lighting devices" patented technology

An alert system for a vehicle includes a video display, an interior visual alert device disposed at an interior rearview mirror assembly, a driver side visual alert device disposed at a driver side exterior rearview mirror assembly and a passenger side visual alert device disposed at a passenger side exterior rearview mirror assembly. A control is operable to activate at least one of the alert devices in response to a detection of an object rearward of the vehicle. The alert devices are viewable by the driver of the vehicle when activated and are operable to guide or prompt the driver to check the images captured by a rearward facing camera and displayed in the vehicle cabin by the video display so that the driver can verify the nature and type of a potential hazard rearward of the vehicle.

The embodiments disclosed herein show how such LED methods and systems, especially intelligent LED systems, can be used for photographic and cinematography applications and provide many benefits. Controlled LED illumination allows easy customization of these features to create a particular mood and can be used to create light of desired saturation and hue.

A high intensity light source employs a plurality of light emitting diodes associated with a unitary reflector subassembly. The reflector subassembly defines an array of frustoconical reflectors arranged in rows and columns with the adjacent reflectors of each row being connected by a diverging slot with reflective wall surfaces. The light emitting diodes are mounted on a printed circuit board which forms a component of heat sink subassembly.

A system and method to avoid collisions on highways, and to minimize the fatalities, injury, and damage when a collision is unavoidable. The system includes sensors to detect other vehicles, and computing environments programmed to evaluate when a collision is imminent and to determine whether the collision is avoidable. If the collision is avoidable by a sequence of controlled accelerations and decelerations and steering, the system implements that sequence of actions automatically. If the collision is unavoidable, a different sequence is implemented to minimize the overall harm of the unavoidable collision. The system further includes indirect mitigation steps such as flashing the brake lights automatically. An optional post-collision strategy is implemented to prevent secondary collisions, particularly if the driver is incapacitated. Adjustment devices are provided to enable the driver to set the type and timing of automatic interventions.

The present invention provides a travel direction device in which a user can listen to voice directions or warning voice direction about a traveling route. The travel direction device according to the present invention sets a direction about the traveling route, and if the user drives the same traveling route a plurality of times, the direction is given less frequently than a number of times the user drives the traveling route. Accordingly, the voice direction is not given all the time, thus not annoying for the user who uses the same route repeatedly. Consequently, the user would not turn off the voice direction function itself, and thus, the voice direction function can be used effectively.

A system and method for calculating a horizontal camera to target distance is provided. A camera on board a vehicle is configured to image a target on a trailer that is aligned with the vehicle. A controller is in communication with the camera and is supplied a user-obtained measurement. The controller is configured to calculate a first horizontal distance and a second horizontal distance, and to sum the first and second horizontal distances to calculate a horizontal camera to target distance.

Methods and systems are provided for LED modules that include an LED die integrated in an LED package with a submount that includes an electronic component for controlling the light emitted by the LED die. The electronic component integrated in the s submount may include drive hardware, a network interface, memory, a processor, a switch-mode power supply, a power facility, or another type of electronic component.

A method of using a directional sensor for the purposes of detecting the presence of a vehicle or an object within a zone of interest on a roadway or in a parking space. The method comprises the following steps: transmitting a microwave transmit pulse of less than 5 feet; radiating the transmitted pulse by a directional antenna system; receiving received pulses by an adjustable receive window; integrating or combining signals from multiple received pulses; amplifying and filtering the integrated receive signal; digitizing the combined signal; comparing the digitized signal to at least one preset or dynamically computed threshold values to determine the presence or absence of an object in the field of view of the sensor; and providing at least one pulse generator with rise and fall times of less than 3 ns each and capable of generating pulses less than 10 ns in duration.

Personnel and vehicle collision avoidance devices configured to be used in collision avoidance systems are disclosed. The collision avoidance devices are configured to be aware of the context (e.g. position, location, state, status, etc.) in which the person or vehicle is. This awareness allows the devices to avoid transmitting non-hazardous proximity warnings when the context does not warrant the transmission of proximity warnings, and to transmit special critical proximity warnings when the context warrants the transmission of such proximity warnings. To detect the context, the devices comprise one or more context-awareness mechanisms (e.g. user input interfaces, sensors, infra-red receivers, etc.), each of which being capable of detecting one or more particular contexts. A collision avoidance system comprising these personnel and vehicle collision avoidance devices is also presented.

The invention relates to an on-board intelligent alarming method and a device, wherein, the method combines a longitudinal anti-collision pre-warning method based on the single-eye vision and an accident automatic help-calling method, realizes preventing the rear-end accidents, strives for helping time, reduces injuries and deaths, effectively prevents the collision accidents and personnel deaths caused by the collision, and improves the running safety of the automobile; the device mainly comprises three parts: an on-board terminal, a monitoring center and a user end; the method and the device use the machine vision technique to differentiate the moving vehicles in the front, have high precision and wide visible range, can effectively probe the obstacles, reduce the error reporting possibility and prevent the collision accidents. The method and the device can improve the safety of the vehicle, thus having extremely large application value and prospect.

According to one aspect of one embodiment of the present invention, a safety control system for vehicles, includes, a communication device having at least one of an input accessible from within the vehicle and an output communicated within the vehicle, at least one sensor operable to sense at least one condition related to vehicle operation, and a controller communicated with the sensor and the communication device to selectively suppress at least one of said input and said output in response to a sensed parameter of said at least one condition being outside of a threshold. When an input is suppressed, the driver is prevented from accessing or inputting information into the communication device. When an output is suppressed, communication between the device and the driver of a vehicle is suppressed to, among other things, avoid distracting the driver during certain driving situations or conditions relating to the driver, vehicle and/or environment.

Disclosed herein are a variety of different electrical system topologies intended to mitigate the impact of large intermittent loads on a 12 volt vehicle power distribution system. In some embodiments the intermittent load is disconnected from the remainder of the system and the voltage supplied to this load is allowed to fluctuate. In other embodiments, the voltage to critical loads is regulated independently of the voltage supplied to the remainder of the system. The different topologies described can be grouped into three categories, each corresponding to a different solution technique. One approach is to regulate the voltage to the critical loads. A second approach is to isolate the intermittent load that causes the drop in system voltage. The third approach is to use a different type of alternator that has a faster response than the conventional Lundell wound field machine.

A target monitoring system and method are provided herein. An imager is configured to image a scene rearward of a vehicle and containing a target disposed on a trailer attached to the vehicle. A controller is configured to receive images from the imager, modify each image to increase the size of the imaged target, and analyze the modified images to determine at least one trailer related information.

A system and a method are provided for estimating an actual hitch angle between a vehicle and a trailer. A hitch sensor on the vehicle continuously senses a measured hitch angle and a steering sensor continuously senses a steering angle of steered wheels of the vehicle. A controller determines an offset between the measured hitch angle and the actual hitch angle when the measured hitch angle and the steering angle are substantially constant while the vehicle and trailer are reversing.

Safety systems and methods for driver operated motor vehicles. The systems and methods respond to adverse weather to regulate traffic flow of vehicles, and to change the performance of vehicles in more than two different modes of operation. The systems and methods further locate other vehicles ahead and at the sides of said vehicle, and communicate such locations and proximity of the other vehicles, as well as warning the driver of the danger of collision. The information provided by such systems and methods is communicated to the vehicle driver in such manner that the driver's vision and attention are not diverted away from other traffic conditions ahead of the vehicle.

The invention discloses a vehicle safety driving early warning method based on vehicle internet. Vehicle information data is sent to a network background server through a vehicle-mounted wireless communication unit, the network background server acquires information data of dangerous points on a road section where a vehicle is located according to the vehicle information data and sends the information data at the dangerous points on the road section to the vehicle-mounted wireless communication unit, a vehicle-mounted central processing unit compares obtained dangerous point information with self-vehicle information, a safety distance model is called to generate early warning parameters, and a vehicle-mounted alarm unit, a vehicle-mounted display unit and an electronic control braking system are controlled to perform early warning response. The vehicle safety driving early warning method based on the vehicle internet has the advantage that a network background server terminal provides the dangerous point information for a vehicle-mounted terminal, the vehicle-mounted terminal acquires and analyzes vehicle geographical position information and the dangerous point information on the road section where the vehicle is located in real time, the vehicle-mounted alarm unit, the vehicle-mounted display unit and the electronic control braking system are controlled to perform the early warning response, and the vehicle safety driving early warning method based on the vehicle internet has reliability and high efficiency of vehicle network data communication.

The invention relates to the technical field of complete electric vehicle management systems, and particularly discloses a management system and a working method for the endurance mileage of an electrical vehicle. The system comprises an acquisition module used for acquiring vehicle location information, actual traffic information, average vehicle speed data, residual battery capacity and power loss information of various vehicle parts, and a confirming module connected with the acquisition module and used for confirming the maximum endurance mileage of a vehicle according the information acquired by the acquisition module. The management system and the working method can calculate the endurance mileage in a comprehensive and dynamic manner, reduce forecast errors to the maximum extent, effectively assist users in planning trips reasonably and improve the experience of the users.

A method for detecting and alerting a driver of vehicles in their blind spots, includes: tracking movement and relative position of a driver to one or more vehicles; determining one or more driver blind spots; determining when at least one of the one or more vehicles approaches one of the driver blind spots; determining when at least one of the one or more vehicles occupies one of the driver blind spots; activating one or more indicators in response to one or more vehicles approaching and occupying one of the driver blind spots; wherein the one or more indicators comprise light emitting diodes (LED), liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma, projected elements, and electroluminescent elements; and wherein a sequence and pattern of activating the one or more indicators is determined based on the relative position of the driver to the one or more vehicles.

Methods and apparatus for providing circadian-friendly LED light sources are disclosed. A light source is formed to include a first LED emission (e.g., one or more LEDs emitting a first spectrum) and a second LED emission (e.g., one or more LEDs emitting a second spectrum) wherein the first and second LED emissions are combined in a first ratio and in a second ratio such that while changing from the first ratio to the second ratio the relative circadian stimulation is varied while maintaining a color rendering index above 80.

Active material based haptic communication and alert systems are provided. In an embodiment, a haptic alert system comprises: an active material in operative communication with a vehicle surface, the active material being capable of changing at least one attribute in response to an applied activation signal; and a controller in communication with the active material, wherein the controller is configured to selectively apply the activation signal, and wherein the vehicle surface has at least one property that changes with the change in the at least one attribute of the active material.

A motor vehicle safety system determines the state of automotive electronic devices as a function of speed to minimize potential distractions to the driver. Vehicle speed data is supplied to a rules based system which applies rules to determine what functions, at a given speed, within the respective electronic devices are available.

The invention relates to a front small-region object recognition and vehicle early warning method, and belongs to technical field of early warning for collision in front of vehicles. The front small-region object recognition and vehicle early warning method specifically comprises the steps that an image of a target to be recognized in front of a vehicle is acquired, and a region of interest (ROI)image is obtained; image preprocessing is performed on the obtained region of interest image, the preprocessed region of interest image is inputted into an improved YOLO convolutional network structure model to perform target recognition, and a target regression frame and a target category are outputted; the recognition result is inputted into a vehicle early warning system, if the target regression frame is located beyond the range of a vehicle driving route or the target is recognized to be of a non-dangerous category, the target is marked as a non-dangerous target, and the vehicle does notperform early warning; and if the target regression frame is located within the vehicle driving route and the recognized object belongs to a dangerous category or the object cannot be recognized but has certain speed features, the target is marked as a dangerous target, the vehicle performs early warning to remind a driver to pay attention so as to avoid occurrence of an accident.

The invention provides a fatigue driving detection method and an anti-fatigue driving auxiliary device. The method comprises the following steps: collecting road video information during the driving of a vehicle to calculate line pressing frequency information of wheels; and comparing the line pressing frequency information, road type information, steering wheel operating data, throttle control data, current driving duration and season information with a pre-stored anti-fatigue driving model to judge whether a driver is in a fatigue driving state or not. The device comprises a data collecting component for collecting road video information and vehicle state, a program logic component for processing data collected by the data collecting component, and a fatigue driving judging component for comparing and judging; and a pre-warning respond component is used for voice alarming and deceleration and brake stop operation when the driver is in the fatigue driving state. The invention has the advantages of instantaneity, accuracy and wide adaptability.

A light assembly is configured to produce a large area of light emission from an LED light source. The LED light source is mounted within a concave reflector and oriented to face the rear of the reflector. A compound reflecting surface diverts axial light from the LED away from the axis of the reflector to avoid blockage by the LED support structure. A peripheral reflecting surface redirects the diverted light. The LED light source may be a linear array of LEDs aligned with a linear focal axis of the reflector.

A sensing system for a vehicle includes a first sensor at a forward portion of a side of the vehicle such that a principal axis of the first sensor's zone of sensing is rearward and sideward and at an angle relative to the body, and a second sensor at a rearward portion of the side of the vehicle such that a principal axis of the second sensor's zone of sensing is forward and sideward and at an angle relative to the body. Data sensed by the sensors when each sensor senses with at least two zones of sensing are communicated to a control, which determines the presence of one or more objects exterior the vehicle and within the zones of sensing of at least one of the sensors.

The invention relates to a system and a method for prewarning lane deviation. The system comprises a pickup unit, a lane line identification unit, a deviation detection unit, and a prewarning unit which are electrically connected, wherein the pickup unit is used for receiving and transmitting a road condition signal; the lane line identification unit is connected with the pickup unit, receives the road condition signal and performs Hough conversion on the signals to identify the lane line; the deviation detection unit is connected with the lane line identification unit and calculates the distance between the identified lane line and a vehicle body, and sends a prewarning command when the distance is greater than a preset threshold value; and the prewarning unit is connected with the deviation detection unit, receives the prewarning command and sends the corresponding prewarning signal. The method comprises the following steps of: calibrating the pickup unit, setting an effective area, performing edge detection, finding the lane line to judge whether the lane line is deviated and sending the prewarning signal.

Disclosed are an aberrant driving behavior monitoring and recognizing method and system based on a smart mobile terminal. Data are collected from a sensor, characteristic value data are extracted, then a characteristic value is trained through a machine learning method, a classifier model is set up, a driving behavior pattern is intercepted in the real-time monitoring process, and six kinds of aberrant driving behaviors are judged. Sidewinding driving, rapid turning, sideslipping, rapid U turning, sudden turning and sudden braking in the aberrant driving behaviors can be fast detected through the sensor of a smart phone. An experimental result shows that the mean total precision of the specific types of the aberrant driving behaviors recognized by the system is 96.20 percent.

A steering control device includes a driving support ECU. The driving support ECU 10 is configured to execute an original lane return assist control to control a steering so as to return an own vehicle from a target lane to the original lane when a lane change assist control is stopped by detection of a first approaching vehicle in a situation where the own vehicle enters the target lane to travel in the target lane. The driving support ECU is configured to prohibit the original lane return assist control and to execute a lateral speed zero control to control the steering so as to maintain a lateral speed which is a speed in a lane width direction of the own vehicle at zero, when an original lane side vehicle is being detected.

A method for ascertaining at least one emergency trajectory of an ego-vehicle using an assistance system, in particular a driver assistance system of the ego-vehicle, and/or an automatic driving function, upon detection of an imminent collision of the ego-vehicle, at least one emergency trajectory of the ego-vehicle being ascertained by the assistance system or the automatic driving function under consideration of at least one other trajectory of at least one other object which is different from the ego-vehicle. Also described is a computer program or a computer program product, a computer unit or a processing unit, and a safety device, in particular having an assistance system and/or an automatic driving function for a vehicle, including a motor vehicle.

The invention relates to an infrared vehicle interior environmental monitoring system based on a controlled area network (CAN)/ local interconnect network (LIN) bus. The infrared vehicle interior environmental monitoring system based on the CAN / LIN bus comprises a senor, a signal processing module, an analog/ digital (A/ D) conversion circuit, an electronic control unit (ECU) system, a vehicle-mounted computer, a CAN/ LIN data bus, an alarming circuit, a liquid crystal display (LCD) module, a wireless communication module and a power source. Signals obtained by the sensor are processed through the signal processing module at first, and then are converted through the A/ D conversion circuit to be input to the ECU system to be processed. The ECU system carries out synthetic judgment by combining sensor information and vehicle state information obtained through the CAN/ LIN bus from the vehicle-mounted computer. When the ECU system finds that an environment is poor or a person / life is left and vehicle doors are locked inside a vehicle, the ECU system starts the alarming circuit to give an alarm, a message prompt is sent through the wireless communication module and an instruction is sent to the vehicle-mounted computer through the CAN/ LIN bus, and the vehicle-mounted computer adjusts vehicle windows or controls starting of an air conditioner and outer circulation of the air conditioner. The power source supplies power for parts. According to the infrared vehicle interior environmental monitoring system based on the CAN / LIN bus, a safety guarantee is provided for the person who does not want to stay in the vehicle, and accidents are avoided.