JP2003260933A - Automatic glare controlling device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automatic glare controlling device for a vehicle as it had been impossible to grasp and reduce the glare that a driver is actually feeling caused by different factors at different times, such as the surrounding environment, glasses worn by the driver, or the way the driver is seated. <P>SOLUTION: This device is capable of grasping and reducing the amount of glare that a driver actually feels by providing an eye image extractor 4 for extracting an image of the driver's eyes taken by a camera 1 mounted inside the vehicle for recording the driver's face, a pupil size detector 5 for detecting the size of the pupils from the eye image, and an illuminance detector 6 for detecting the irradiation quantity of light, a glare determining part 8 for determining whether the driver feels a glare based on information from the extractor 4 and the detector 5, and a glare controlling part 9 for controlling the glare when the driver is determined to be feeling the glare. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sun visor device and a mirror device for an automobile, and more particularly to an automatic glare adjusting device for automatically controlling the sun visor, the mirror and the like when necessary. It is a thing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a sun visor device, as described in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 05-63929, an optical sensor attached to a vehicle detects the angle and intensity of light, and this is presented to the driver's eyes. Or the illuminance at which the driver feels dazzling. When the condition is satisfied, the glare is reduced by controlling the liquid crystal filter on the windshield corresponding to the portion through which the light passes and adjusting the light transmission amount.

As a conventional mirror device, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-80052, when an optical sensor attached to a vehicle detects glare, the reflectance of the mirror is stored in advance in a driving mode. The person was adjusted to the optimum value to reduce the glare.

[0004]

However, due to various factors such as the surrounding environment at the time of driving, the glasses worn by the driver and the way the passenger sits, the same amount of light enters the vehicle at the same angle. Even in the case of lighting, there is a difference in the degree of glare actually felt by the driver at that time. In the above-described conventional configuration, there is a problem that it is impossible to surely reduce the glare actually felt by the driver in a situation that can change moment by moment.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and detects the degree of opening of the driver's pupil using a camera to automatically reduce the glare actually felt by the driver. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a height adjusting device.

[0006]

In order to solve the above conventional problems, the automatic glare control device of the present invention is provided with a function of detecting the degree of opening of the driver's pupil and the irradiation light amount using a camera. It is a thing.

Thus, it is determined whether or not the driver is dazzling, and if the driver is dazzling, this is automatically reduced.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention according to claim 1 is a camera mounted and fixed in a vehicle to show the driver's face, an eye image extraction unit for cutting out the driver's eyes from the image of the camera, and the eye. A pupil size detection unit that detects the size of the pupil from the image of the image extraction unit, an illuminance detection unit that estimates the amount of light emitted to the eyes from the image of the eye image extraction unit, the pupil size detection unit, and By providing a dazzling determination unit that determines whether the driver is dazzling based on the information from the illuminance detection unit and a dazzling adjustment unit that adjusts the dazzle based on the information from the dazzling determination unit, driving It is possible to accurately judge whether or not a person is dazzling, and if it is dazzling, this can be automatically reduced.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the dazzle can be automatically adjusted by using a sun visor capable of controlling forward and backward or up and down movements in the dazzle adjusting section according to the first aspect.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, by using a liquid crystal filter capable of controlling the amount of transmitted light in the glare adjusting section according to the first aspect, the glare can be automatically adjusted. .

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a timer is provided for canceling the dazzle adjustment after a certain period of time after the dazzle adjustment by the dazzle adjusting section according to the first aspect.
The glare control can be canceled automatically.

According to the invention of claim 5, after the glare is adjusted by the glare adjuster according to claim 1, the driver is provided with a switch for canceling the glare adjustment. The glare control can be canceled.

The invention according to claim 6 is provided with a switch for switching whether or not the glare adjustment section according to claim 1 automatically or manually adjusts the glare, so that the driver's preference can be improved. It is possible to set them together.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the camera according to the first aspect is provided with a mechanism capable of automatically adjusting the angle of the camera vertically and horizontally so that the camera always catches the driver's face. , Regardless of the posture, the glare can be accurately judged under the same conditions.

The invention described in claim 8 is an irradiation angle detector for detecting from which angle the driver's face is irradiated with light from the image of the camera described in claim 1, and the irradiation angle. By providing a partial glare adjusting function for adjusting glare only in a necessary part based on information from the detection unit, it is possible to efficiently and efficiently adjust glare.

According to the ninth aspect of the invention, the dazzle can be automatically adjusted by using a sun visor capable of controlling the forward / backward or up / down / left / right movement in the dazzle adjusting part according to the eighth aspect.

According to a tenth aspect of the invention, the liquid crystal filter capable of automatically controlling the amount of transmitted light is used in the dazzle adjusting section according to the eighth aspect, whereby the dazzling can be automatically adjusted. it can.

The invention according to claim 11 is provided with a timer for canceling the dazzle adjustment after a certain period of time after adjusting the dazzle by the dazzle adjusting part according to claim 8, whereby the dazzle is automatically dazzled. The adjustment can be released.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, the driver is provided with a switch for canceling the dazzle adjustment after the dazzle adjustment by the dazzle adjusting section according to the eighth aspect. The glare control can be canceled.

According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, a switch for switching whether or not the dazzle adjustment section according to the eighth aspect adjusts the dazzle automatically or manually is provided. It is possible to set them together.

According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the camera according to the eighth aspect is provided with a mechanism capable of automatically adjusting the angle of the camera vertically and horizontally so that the driver's physique can be always caught. , Regardless of the posture, the glare can be accurately judged under the same conditions.

The invention described in claim 15 is the invention as claimed in claims 1 and 8.
In the automatic glare control device described in, the optical sensor attached to each of the room mirror and the side mirror, based on the information from the optical sensor, the light reflected by the driver whether the light that the driver feels dazzling is direct light By providing a light source identification unit that determines whether the light is a light and a mirror control unit that adjusts glare by controlling a mirror when the light source identification unit determines that the light is a reflected light, It is possible to adjust the glare even with respect to the glare of reflected light due to the above.

According to the sixteenth aspect of the present invention, the glare can be automatically adjusted by performing the mirror control method according to the fifteenth aspect using a mirror whose angle can be automatically adjusted.

According to the seventeenth aspect of the invention, the mirror control method according to the fifteenth aspect is performed by using a mirror whose reflectance can be automatically adjusted, whereby the glare can be automatically adjusted.

According to the eighteenth aspect of the present invention, after the dazzle adjustment by the dazzle adjusting section according to the fifteenth aspect is provided, a timer for canceling the dazzle adjustment after a predetermined time is provided, so that the dazzling is automatically performed. The adjustment can be released.

According to a nineteenth aspect of the present invention, a driver is provided with a switch for canceling the dazzle adjustment after the dazzle adjustment by the dazzle adjusting section according to the fifteenth aspect.
The driver's intention can cancel the glare control.

The invention as set forth in claim 20 is provided with a switch for switching whether or not the dazzle adjustment section according to claim 15 automatically or manually adjusts the dazzle, so that the driver's preference can be improved. It is possible to set them together.

According to a twenty-first aspect of the present invention, the camera according to the fifteenth aspect is provided with a mechanism capable of automatically adjusting the angle of the camera vertically and horizontally so that the driver's physique can be always caught. , Regardless of the posture, the glare can be accurately judged under the same conditions.

(Embodiment 1) Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an automatic glare control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a camera that reflects the driver's face, 2 is a sun visor,
A sun visor storage box 3 stores the sun visor 2.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an automatic glare control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2, 4 is an eye image extraction unit that extracts the eye image in the face image, 5 is a pupil size detection unit that detects the size of the pupil in the eye image extracted by the eye image extraction unit 4, and 6 is An illuminance detection unit that detects the illuminance of the light hitting the eyes from the brightness of the eye image extracted by the eye image extraction unit 4, and 7 is a memory that stores information such as the size of the pupil and the illuminance when the driver is not dazzling. , 8 is a dazzle determination unit that compares the information of the pupil size detection unit 5 and the illuminance detection unit 6 with the value of the memory 7 to determine whether or not the driver is feeling dazzling, and 9 is a dazzle determination unit. When the driver determines that the driver is feeling dazzling by the unit 8, the dazzling adjusting unit for adjusting the dazzling is a sun visor control unit for adjusting the sun visor 2 by receiving a signal from the dazzling adjusting unit. is there.

The operation and action of the automatic glare control device configured as described above will be described below. While the vehicle is running, the camera 1 always shows the driver's face at a certain sampling speed. Further, the camera 1 has a resolution sufficient to measure the size of the driver's pupil, and the driver's face is always maintained even when the driver's posture changes or another driver with a different physique is replaced. It is equipped with a mechanism that automatically changes the angle to the position that captures. The face image captured by the camera 1 is sent to the eye image extraction unit 4 as a digital image. The eye image extraction unit 4 extracts the image of the portion corresponding to the eyes from the face image by image processing and sends it to the pupil size detection unit 5 and the illuminance detection unit 6. The pupil size detection unit 5 detects the size of the pupil in the extracted eye image. The size may be an absolute value or a relative value such as the ratio of the pupil to the entire eye. The illuminance detection unit 6 calculates the average brightness of the entire eye image. The glare determination unit 8 compares the information from the pupil size detection unit 5 with the size of the driver's pupil stored in the memory 7 when the driver is not dazzling. The size of the driver's pupil when not dazzling is a statistically determined general value, or a value registered in the device in advance when the driver himself is not dazzling, or the first value when starting driving. This is the value that the device automatically registered the status. As a result of comparison,
When the size of the driver's pupil when it is not dazzling is obviously smaller than the size of the driver's pupil, the information from the illuminance detection unit 6 and the non-dazzling information stored in the memory 7 to determine whether this is caused by the dazzling Compare with the average brightness of the entire eye. When the average brightness of the entire eyes is clearly brighter than the brightness when the eyes are not dazzling, the dazzling determination unit 8 determines that the driver is feeling dazzling, and sends the result to the dazzling adjustment unit 9. Here, the brightness when not dazzling is a general value statistically obtained, or a value registered in the device when the driver himself / herself is not dazzling, or the initial state when driving is set as the device. Is the automatically registered value. The glare control unit 9 sends a signal for adjusting the sun visor to the sun visor control unit 10. The sun visor 2 is stored in the sun visor storage box 3 and can automatically move back and forth based on a signal from the sun visor control unit 10. The sun visor 2 receiving the signal from the sun visor control unit 10 projects toward the windshield and covers the upper portion of the windshield. In the meantime, it is continuously determined whether or not the driver feels the glare, and the sun visor 2 is moved to a place where the driver does not feel the glare. Although the sun visor has been described as an example of the means for reducing the glare this time, a liquid crystal filter capable of varying the light transmittance may be used. Further, the glare adjustment does not have to be automatic, and a switch for switching between automatic and manual may be provided, and when this is manual, it may be performed only by the driver operating a button or the like. Further, as means for releasing the glare after adjusting it, a timer may be provided to automatically release the glare after a certain period of time, or the driver may release it by operating a button or the like.

As described above, in the present embodiment,
By providing the function of detecting the degree of opening of the driver's pupil and the irradiation light amount by using the camera, it is possible to accurately determine whether the driver is dazzling and to surely reduce the glare.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an automatic glare control device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 2 is a sun visor that can be moved vertically and horizontally, 10 is a sun visor control unit that controls the sun visor 2, and 11 is an irradiation angle calculation unit that calculates the angle at which light is emitted from the image of the camera 1. The difference from the configuration of the first embodiment is that an irradiation angle calculation unit 11 is provided. Here, the luminance distribution of the image projected by the camera 1 is examined, and the rough irradiation angle of light is calculated from there. The calculated angle is sent to the sun visor control unit 10. Based on the information, the sun visor control unit 10 finds a sun visor position suitable for blocking the irradiation light, and moves the sun visor 2 to that position. (Omitted, the same as the method described in Embodiment 1) As described above, in the present embodiment, the irradiation angle that causes glare is calculated by calculating the irradiation angle of light from the image of the camera. It is possible to block light only in the surrounding area.

(Third Embodiment) FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an automatic glare control device according to a third embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 4, 12 is a room mirror and a side mirror, 13 is an optical sensor attached to the room mirror and the side mirror 12, 14 is a light source specifying unit that specifies the position of the light source based on information from the optical sensor 13, and 15 is It is a mirror control unit that controls the rearview mirror and the side mirror 12. The optical sensor 13 is attached to a place where the driver never sees the rear-view mirror and the side-view mirror 12 or sees them.

The difference from the structures of the first and second embodiments is that the room mirror and side mirror 12 are provided with an optical sensor 13.
, The point where the light source identification unit 14 that identifies the light source from the information is provided, the room mirror and the side mirror 12
The point is that the memory 7 stores a value that serves as a reference for whether or not the light is bright enough to make the driver feel dazzling when the light hits. When the glare determination unit 8 determines that the driver feels dazzling, it is necessary to identify whether the driver is due to direct light or reflected light from the mirror. The light source identification unit 14 compares the signal from the optical sensor 13 with the brightness value of the light stored in the memory 7 that the driver feels dazzling, and determines whether the light dazzling the driver is direct light or not. Judge whether it is the reflected light of. When it is determined that the light is reflected by the mirror, the corresponding mirror is determined from the signal from the optical sensor 13. The mirror control unit 15 adjusts the angle of the corresponding mirror to bring it to a point where the driver does not feel dazzling. The reduction of glare by controlling the mirror may be performed by changing the reflectance instead of adjusting the angle. (Omission is the same as the method described in the first and second embodiments below) As described above, in the present embodiment, the optical sensor is attached to the mirror, and whether the dazzling light is the direct light based on the signal thereof. By judging whether or not the light is reflected by the mirror, it is possible to accurately judge all the glare and reduce it surely.

[0037]

As described above, according to the invention described in claims 1 to 21, it is possible to accurately judge whether or not the driver is dazzling, and it is possible to surely reduce the glare. Can provide a height adjustment device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an automatic glare control device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an automatic glare control device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an automatic glare control device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an automatic glare control device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 camera 2 sun visor 3 Sun visor storage box 4th image extraction unit 5 Pupil size detector 6 Illuminance detector 7 memory 8 Dazzling judgment section 9 Dazzle control section 10 Sun visor control unit 11 Irradiation angle calculator 12 Room mirror and side mirror 13 Optical sensor 14 Light source identification unit 15 Mirror controller

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Claims (21)

[Claims] 1. A camera fixedly mounted in a vehicle to reflect the driver's face, an eye image extraction unit that cuts out the driver's eyes from the image of the camera, and a pupil size from the image of the eye image extraction unit. A pupil size detection unit that detects the illuminance, an illuminance detection unit that estimates the amount of light radiated to the eye from the image of the eye image extraction unit, and an operation based on information from the pupil size detection unit and the illuminance detection unit. An automatic glare adjusting device comprising: a glare judging section for judging whether or not a person is dazzling; and a glare adjusting section for adjusting the glare based on information from the glare judging section. 2. The automatic glare control device according to claim 1, wherein a sun visor capable of controlling forward and backward or vertical movement is used for the glare control section. 3. The automatic glare control device according to claim 1, wherein a liquid crystal filter capable of controlling a light transmission amount is used in the glare control section. 4. After the glare is adjusted by the glare adjusting section,
The automatic glare control device according to claim 1, further comprising a timer for canceling the glare control after a predetermined time. 5. After the glare is adjusted by the glare adjusting section,
The automatic glare control device according to claim 1, further comprising a switch for a driver to cancel the glare control. 6. The automatic glare control device according to claim 1, further comprising a switch for switching whether or not to adjust the glare automatically or manually. 7. The automatic glare control device according to claim 1, further comprising a mechanism capable of automatically adjusting the angle of the camera vertically and horizontally so that the camera always catches the driver's face. 8. An irradiation angle detection unit that detects from which angle the light is irradiating the driver's face from the image of the camera, and a necessary portion based on information from the irradiation angle detection unit. The automatic glare adjusting device according to claim 1, further comprising a partial glare adjusting function for adjusting glare. 9. The automatic glare adjusting device according to claim 8, wherein a sun visor capable of controlling forward and backward or vertical and horizontal movements is used for the glare adjusting section. 10. The automatic glare control device according to claim 8, wherein a liquid crystal filter capable of controlling a light transmission amount is used in the glare control section. 11. The automatic glare adjusting device according to claim 8, further comprising a timer for canceling the dazzle adjustment after a predetermined time has elapsed after the dazzle adjustment by the dazzle adjuster. 12. The automatic glare control device according to claim 8, further comprising a switch for allowing a driver to cancel the glare control after the glare control by the dazzle control section. 13. The automatic glare control device according to claim 8, further comprising a switch for switching whether or not to adjust the glare automatically or manually. 14. The automatic glare control device according to claim 8, further comprising a mechanism capable of automatically adjusting the angle of the camera vertically and horizontally so that the camera always captures the driver's face. 15. A light sensor attached to each of the room mirror and the side mirror, and whether information that the driver feels dazzling is direct light or reflected light reflected by the mirror is determined based on information from the light sensors. 9. The automatic glare control device according to claim 1, further comprising: a light source identification unit for controlling the light source, and a mirror control unit that controls the mirror when the light source identification unit determines that the light is reflected light. 16. The automatic glare control device according to claim 15, wherein the mirror control method is performed by using a mirror whose angle can be automatically adjusted. 17. The automatic glare adjusting device according to claim 15, wherein a mirror is used as a mirror control method so that the reflectance can be automatically adjusted. 18. The automatic glare adjusting device according to claim 15, further comprising a timer for canceling the glare adjustment after a predetermined time after the glare adjustment by the glare adjuster. 19. The automatic glare control device according to claim 15, further comprising a switch for allowing a driver to cancel the glare control after the glare control by the dazzle control section. 20. A switch for switching whether to adjust the glare automatically or manually.
The automatic glare control device described. 21. The automatic glare adjusting device according to claim 15, further comprising a mechanism capable of automatically adjusting the angle of the camera vertically and horizontally so that the camera always catches the driver's face.