Vehicle Light Optics for Uniform Road Luminance Distribution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle lights with complex configurations, such as micro array lenses, are difficult to adjust for desired luminance distribution due to varying distances from the road surface, resulting in uneven irradiation patterns.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle light design featuring a light source, a condensing lens, a filter with an irradiation slit, and a projection lens, where the slit's farthest location is brightest and nearest location darkest in the upper-lower direction, with increased diffusion in the width direction, and a focal plane with a curvature radius that decreases as the radial position increases, allowing for a simple configuration that achieves desired luminance distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If a micro array lens is used to adjust focal position according to distance, then the luminance distribution in the irradiation pattern can be optimized, but the device configuration becomes complicated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating a non-uniform light distribution through the combination of the light condensing lens and the filter with the irradiation slit. The light condensing lens concentrates light at specific locations, and the filter's slit structure allows light to pass through selectively, creating different luminance levels at different positions in the irradiation pattern without requiring complex adjustable mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The filter with the irradiation slit segments the light path, allowing different portions of the condensed light to pass through to different regions of the irradiation pattern. This segmentation approach enables controlled luminance distribution by dividing the light transmission into distinct spatial zones.
2Ease of operation
If the optical axis is inclined relative to the road surface, then the vehicle light can be mounted on the vehicle, but the irradiation pattern becomes uneven with extreme darkness at distant positions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the optical parameters by using a light condensing lens with specific focal properties and combining it with a filter that has an irradiation slit at a predetermined position. This parameter configuration compensates for the inclination effect, ensuring that light reaches distant positions on the road surface with sufficient intensity despite the angled mounting orientation.
Solution Approach 2:
The light condensing lens acts as an intermediary element that redirects and concentrates light toward the road surface. By positioning the filter with the irradiation slit at a specific location relative to the lens, the system mediates between the inclined optical axis and the horizontal road surface, achieving more uniform irradiation.
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
The vehicle light achieves a desired luminance distribution in the irradiation pattern while maintaining a simple configuration, improving visibility and reducing discomfort from rapid brightness changes, even when the optical axis is inclined relative to the road surface.
Implementation Method 1
a light condensing lens that condenses a light emitted from the light source
Implementation Method 2
a projection lens that forms the light having passed through the filter, into an irradiation pattern
Implementation Method 3
a filter that has an irradiation slit for allowing the light, which is condensed by the light condensing lens, to partially pass through
Data Source
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AI summary
A vehicle light provided with a light condensing lens that condenses a light emitted from a light source, a filter provided with an irradiation slit, and a projection lens that projects a light passing through the filter thereby to form an irradiation pattern. The irradiation slit has a farthest location that corresponds to a farthest portion projected at a farthest position in the irradiation pattern, and a nearest location that corresponds to a nearest portion projected at a nearest position in the irradiation pattern. The light condensing lens, on the filter, makes the farthest location of the irradiation slit brightest and the nearest location of the irradiation slit darkest in an upper-lower direction, and diffuses the light emitted from the light source more in a width direction, which is orthogonal to an optical axis direction and to the upper-lower direction than in the upper-lower direction.