Vehicle Headlight Beam Recasting via Touchscreen Interface
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle headlight systems lack user-friendly control mechanisms, particularly for adaptive headlights, which complicate the adjustment and control of beam profiles, especially when transitioning between different steering angles and speeds.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle system incorporating a touchscreen display, camera, and processor to recast headlight beams based on user inputs, disabling adjustments above a predetermined speed, and utilizing calibration maps to associate touchscreen zones with specific beam profiles, allowing for intuitive control of headlight beams through a two-dimensional interface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If adaptive headlights are used to automatically adjust beam profiles during turns, then beam accuracy and adaptability are improved, but control complexity and user interaction difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a camera to capture images of the road environment and displays them on a touchscreen, creating a visual copy of the actual scene. Users can directly interact with this image representation to control headlight beams, simplifying the control interface while maintaining adaptability. The calibration map creates a correspondence between touchscreen zones and beam profiles, allowing intuitive control without complex manual adjustments.
Solution Approach 2:
The touchscreen display acts as an intermediary between the user and the headlight control system. Instead of directly controlling complex headlight parameters, users interact with a simplified visual interface showing camera images and calibration zones. This intermediary layer translates simple touch gestures into precise beam adjustments, reducing control complexity while maintaining adaptability.
2Ease of operation
If touchscreen control is enabled for headlight adjustment, then ease of operation is improved, but risk of accidental activation at high speeds increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system preemptively prevents accidental activation by detecting vehicle speed before allowing touchscreen control. When the vehicle exceeds a predetermined speed threshold, the system automatically disables touchscreen headlight adjustment functionality. This preliminary protective action blocks potentially harmful operations before they can occur, maintaining both ease of operation at safe speeds and reliability at high speeds.
3Ease of operation
If manual headlight adjustment is allowed during vehicle operation, then user convenience is improved, but risk of unsafe beam positioning increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses a camera to continuously monitor the road environment and provides real-time visual feedback through the touchscreen display. Users can see the current beam position relative to the captured image and make adjustments with immediate visual confirmation. This feedback loop ensures that beam positioning remains safe and appropriate for current driving conditions while maintaining user convenience.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the availability and behavior of headlight control based on vehicle operating conditions. Touchscreen control is enabled when safe (below speed threshold) and disabled when unsafe (above speed threshold). The beam profiles themselves are dynamically selected based on calibration data that maps touchscreen zones to appropriate beam patterns for different steering angles and conditions, preventing unsafe positioning while maintaining convenience.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle including: a headlight that produces a beam, a touchscreen, a camera, processor(s) configured to: (a) display images captured by the camera on the touchscreen; (b) recast the beam according to touch inputs on the images; (c) disable (b) when the vehicle exceeds a predetermined speed; (d) recast the beam by sweeping the beam from an original position to a final position.