Headlight Control Apparatus for Glare Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing headlight control systems are limited in reducing glare from vehicle headlights, as they rely on pre-defined parking areas and image recognition, which fails to account for unregistered residential houses and has difficulty in reliably detecting residential structures, leading to inadequate dimming of headlights.
Innovation Solution
A headlight control apparatus that includes an illuminance detecting section, a forward detecting section, and a dimming control section, which detects luminance and objects within a predetermined distance ahead of the vehicle to automatically dim the headlights when starting in areas with residential structures, such as shops or private residences, and adjusts based on parking area recognition.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If the headlight control system uses pre-defined parking areas and image recognition to control headlight illuminance, then the system can reduce glare in registered areas, but it fails to account for unregistered residential houses and has difficulty in reliably detecting residential structures
Solution Approach 1:
The forward detecting section is designed to detect any object within a predetermined distance ahead of the vehicle, rather than being limited to recognizing specific residential structures. This multi-functional detection approach allows the system to identify shops, private residences, and other buildings without requiring pre-registration or complex image recognition, thereby reliably detecting all potential glare sources while reducing glare from headlights
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the system relies on image information from cameras or map databases to identify residential houses, then it can control headlight illuminance in registered areas, but it has limited opportunity of decreasing illuminance and still has room for improvement in preventing annoyance
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the essential function of detecting objects that may cause glare, separating it from the complex tasks of image recognition and map database matching. By using the forward detecting section to simply detect any object within a predetermined distance, the system removes the limitations of pre-registration requirements and map database dependencies, thereby expanding coverage to include all unregistered areas while effectively reducing headlight glare annoyance
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of relying on complex image recognition to copy the visual appearance of residential structures, the system uses a simplified detection approach that copies the essential function of identifying any object ahead of the vehicle. This allows the system to detect unregistered buildings and structures without requiring them to be pre-mapped or visually recognized, thereby expanding adaptability to all areas while maintaining effective glare reduction
Data Source
AI summary
A headlight control apparatus that controls an illumination state of a headlight that illuminates an area ahead of a vehicle includes an illuminance sensor that detects luminance around the vehicle, an illumination control section that switches on or off the headlight in accordance with the luminance detected by the illuminance sensor, a forward detection sensor that detects an object that is present within a predetermined distance ahead of the vehicle, and a dimming control section that dims the headlight when the forward detection sensor detects an object after start of the vehicle.