Brake Light Failure Detection via Inter-Vehicle Notification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Drivers often fail to notice when their vehicle's brake lights are malfunctioning, which can compromise safe driving by obscuring the status of the vehicle to following drivers.
Innovation Solution
A failure notification system mounted on vehicles that includes an imaging device, processing device, and transmission device to detect and notify the driver of a preceding vehicle about a malfunctioning brake light through inter-vehicle communication.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the driver relies on self-monitoring of the brake light, then no additional devices are needed, but the driver cannot easily notice when the brake light fails
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an imaging device as an intermediary that captures images of the brake light and a notification device that serves as a mediator to transmit failure information to the driver. This intermediary system resolves the contradiction by providing objective detection capability while maintaining simple driver interaction through automated notifications.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables the brake light system to self-diagnose its own status through the imaging device capturing and analyzing brake light images. The notification device then self-transmits failure information to the driver, eliminating the need for continuous driver monitoring while maintaining high reliability.
2Ease of operation
If an imaging device and notification system are added to detect brake light failures, then driver awareness improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The imaging device is designed to serve multiple functions: capturing brake light images for failure detection, and potentially serving as part of other vehicle monitoring systems. The notification device integrates with existing vehicle communication systems, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining ease of operation for brake light monitoring.
3Loss of time
If the driver monitors the brake light manually, then no communication devices are needed, but the failure notification is delayed
Solution Approach 1:
The imaging device continuously captures brake light images in advance, and the notification device is pre-configured to immediately transmit failure information when detected. This preliminary preparation eliminates notification delays while the communication system remains integrated with existing vehicle infrastructure, minimizing added complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A failure notification system mounted on a vehicle includes an imaging device, a processing device, and a transmission device. The processing device acquires video data of a preceding vehicle captured by the imaging device. The processing device performs failure determination based on the acquired video data. As a result of the failure determination by the processing device, when a failure of a brake light of the preceding vehicle is detected, the processing device causes the transmission device to transmit information indicating that the brake light is failed to a reception device of the preceding vehicle.