Adaptive Mirror Lighting with Head-Orientation Sensing to Reduce Glare
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional mirrors with integrated lighting systems often cause glare when users move their heads, leading to discomfort and reduced visibility, as the illumination level is not adequately adjusted based on head orientation.
Innovation Solution
An adaptive lighting system with individually controllable light sources positioned around the mirror surface, a sensor to detect head orientation, and a controller to adjust light emission accordingly, reducing light towards the eyes when the head is turned sideways, upwards, or downwards, and increasing light on the opposite side for better illumination.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If light sources are provided behind a half-translucent mirror to illuminate the user's face, then the user's face is well-illuminated, but the user experiences glare when coming close to the mirror
Solution Approach 1:
The lighting system is divided into multiple individually controllable light sources arranged around the mirror circumference rather than a single uniform light source. This segmentation allows different regions of the mirror to have different illumination levels, enabling the system to illuminate the user's face while avoiding direct light paths to the eyes that cause glare.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the mirror perimeter are assigned different illumination characteristics. The controller adjusts the intensity of individual light sources based on the user's head orientation, providing localized illumination adjustments. This allows the system to maintain high illumination quality on the face while reducing light emission in directions that would cause glare to the user's eyes.
2Measurement precision
If the user comes close to the vanity mirror for makeup or shaving, then the user can see detailed features, but the user experiences glare from the light sources
Solution Approach 1:
The lighting system dynamically adjusts the intensity of individual light sources in real-time based on the user's head orientation detected by the sensor. As the user moves closer to the mirror or changes head position, the controller modifies the illumination pattern to maintain optimal visual detail while preventing glare. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction between needing close viewing distance for detail and avoiding glare.
3Illumination intensity
If light sources are positioned at or near the circumference of the mirror surface, then the mirror provides adequate illumination, but the system causes glare when the user's head is turned sideways
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor detects the user's head orientation and provides feedback to the controller, which then adjusts the intensity of individual light sources accordingly. When the user turns their head sideways, the system receives feedback about the new orientation and reduces illumination from light sources that would cause glare while maintaining illumination from appropriate sources. This closed-loop feedback mechanism resolves the contradiction between adequate illumination and glare prevention.
Data Source
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AI summary
An adaptive lighting system (100), a (virtual) mirror arrangement, a method of controlling light sources of an adaptive light sources, a method of controlling a virtual mirror and a computer program product are provided. The adaptive lighting system is for a mirror component that is configured to show a mirror image of the user at the mirror surface of the mirror component. The adaptive lighting system comprises a plurality of individually controllable light sources (111..119), a sensor (102), and a controller (104). The sensor detects a relative orientation of the head of the user with respect to the mirror surface. The controller generates control signals (121...129) for the individually controllable light sources on the basis of the sensor signal. The controller generates the control signals to obtain a lower emission of light towards eyes of the user if the sensor signal indicates that the head is turned left sidewards, upwards, right sidewards and/or downwards.