Bus Driver Protective Screen Lighting to Reduce Night Reflections
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional bus windshields cause optical illusions due to reflections, especially at night, impairing the driver's visibility and increasing the risk of accidents, particularly when turning.
Innovation Solution
A reflection-reducing protection system for bus drivers that includes a lighting device to illuminate the area outside the bus, ensuring sufficient external light is projected onto the protective screen, minimizing reflections and glare, and activating/deactivating based on steering angles or turn signals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a transparent protective screen is installed to separate the driver's area from the passenger boarding area, then physical safety and hygiene protection are improved, but optical illusions and reflections occur that impair driver visibility
Solution Approach 1:
The lighting device is activated in advance when the turn signal is given or when a turning maneuver is detected, illuminating the area outside the bus before the driver needs to look through the protective screen during the turn. This preliminary illumination prevents the formation of optical illusions by ensuring the external area is lit before the driver's line of sight intersects with the protective screen.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies counter-illumination from the external side of the protective screen to counteract the mirror effect. By illuminating the area outside the bus from below and to the side, the system creates sufficient light contrast that eliminates the reflective properties of the protective screen, preventing optical illusions before they can occur.
2Illumination intensity
If conventional windshields with anti-reflective coatings are used, then daytime visibility is improved, but nighttime optical illusions are not eliminated
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of applying a uniform anti-reflective treatment across the entire windshield, the system applies illumination locally to the specific area outside the bus that corresponds to the driver's field of view during turning maneuvers. The lighting device is positioned to illuminate only the necessary lateral area below and to the side of the bus, creating local light contrast that eliminates reflections precisely where the driver needs clear vision.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the illumination parameters (brightness, position, timing) of the external area rather than modifying the protective screen itself. By dynamically adjusting the lighting conditions outside the bus based on driving conditions (turning maneuvers, nighttime), the system eliminates optical illusions without compromising the protective function of the screen.
3Reliability
If the driver's field of vision is illuminated during turning maneuvers, then visibility and safety are improved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The lighting device serves multiple functions: it illuminates the external area to eliminate optical illusions, provides additional lighting for the driver during turning maneuvers, and can potentially serve as a marker light for the bus. By combining these functions into a single device, the system improves safety without proportionally increasing complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system utilizes existing bus signaling systems (turn signals) to trigger the illumination automatically. When the driver activates the turn signal, the lighting device is automatically activated without requiring separate controls or complex decision-making systems. The existing infrastructure serves the additional function of triggering the anti-optical illusion lighting.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Significantly reduces or eliminates optical illusions, enhances driver visibility by illuminating blind spots, and minimizes glare, thereby improving safety during nighttime driving.
Implementation Method 1
a lighting device (14) arranged to illuminate a lighting area outside the bus (20)
Implementation Method 2
The bus's headlights, especially the dipped beam, illuminate objects on the left side of the bus. The light reflected from these objects is then reflected off the (partition) screen
Data Source
Figure 1~8
Figure 2A~2B
Figure 3~4
AI summary
A reflection-reducing protective system (10) for a driver of a coach or public transport bus (20) is disclosed, comprising: a transparent protective screen (12) configured to separate a driver's area (38) from a passenger boarding area (33) in the bus (20), the protective screen (12) being arranged in a substantially vertical plane laterally to a driving and sitting position (18) of the driver; and a lighting device (14) configured to illuminate a lighting area (26) outside the bus (20), which is positioned in a direction of travel (28) of the bus (20) behind a leading edge (32) of the bus (20) and laterally adjacent to the boarding area (33), and which overlaps with the part of the driver's field of vision (35) that the driver sees through the protective screen (12) when the driver is in the driving and sitting position (18). (Fig. 5)