JP2003291729A - Side dead angle elimination device of moving vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a driver to confirm conditions of both sides with respect to a driver's seat of a moving vehicle with a visual field angle wider than that of a normal rearview mirror according to the driving conditions (right turn, left turn, lane change, getting-out, and night running) of the vehicle. <P>SOLUTION: This device is provided with both side confirmation devices 13e and 13f allowing the driver to visually confirm regions getting into conditions of both sides and set at dead angles in a normal condition with respect to the driver's seat of the moving vehicle according to the driving conditions of the moving vehicle. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a side blind spot elimination device for a moving vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a moving vehicle such as an automobile, a driver has a sufficient field of view from the driver's seat. While driving, it is difficult for the driver to turn his / her face in the required direction each time to confirm the safety in that direction. Generally, a front mirror or a rear mirror is used to secure a state immediately before or after the moving vehicle, and left and right rearview mirrors are generally used on the side and rear of the moving vehicle.

[0003]

However, even if the rear visual field confirmation device such as the front mirror and the left and right rear-view mirrors described above is used, a direction other than the visual field determined by the mirror (for example, B in FIG. 4A) is used. Area) or the state of the side of the moving vehicle at night may be a blind spot only with the rearview mirror.

Explaining a little more concretely, for example, 60,
While traveling at a speed of 80,100 km, there is no room to look back diagonally when the direction of the moving vehicle becomes oblique with respect to the straight direction in order to change the route, and the electric retractable door mirror that is currently on the market "Store" and "Open"
The door mirror body can be driven between and, but it is not a structure that can change the mirror angle other than that, and if you try to use the mirror angle change with the current structure, you need to adjust the view angle each time, In the field of view displayed on the current retractable door mirror, the blind spot is on the side close to the rear, such as right next to the driver's seat.Therefore, when a driver changes the lane of a moving vehicle by changing the lane or the route. I feel anxious and need to check the blind spots again. If this is not done, it may cause a contact accident or a rear-end collision.

In order to solve such a problem, it is possible to check the state of both sides of the driver's seat of the moving vehicle according to the driving state of the moving vehicle (right turn, left turn, lane change, get off, night). In order to provide a side blind spot elimination device which has been adopted.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve this problem, the present invention relates to a driving state of a moving vehicle in an area which is on both sides of a driver's seat of the moving vehicle and which is a blind spot in a normal state. Provided is a side blind spot elimination device for a moving vehicle, which is provided with a side face confirmation device that can be visually confirmed according to the above. According to a more specific embodiment, the side surface confirmation device includes a rearview mirror provided on both sides of the driver's seat of the moving vehicle and a sideview of the moving vehicle from the driver's seat depending on the driving state. A rear-view mirror drive means for changing the observable angle in a plurality of steps, and a switch means connected to the rear-view mirror drive means for controlling the rear-view mirror drive means by a manual operation of a driver to change the angle of the rear-view mirror. Be prepared.

According to another embodiment, a device for visually confirming the state of both sides of a driver's seat of a moving vehicle according to the driving state of the moving vehicle is a driver's seat side and a passenger's seat side. Alternatively, a rear confirmation illumination lamp in a dark place is provided inside the door at the rear of the driver's seat. Further, an auxiliary mirror is attached adjacent to the illumination lamp so that the side and rear view of the vehicle can be confirmed even at night when the door is opened.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION (Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 shows an example of an embodiment of the present invention, in particular, a rearview mirror is made variable according to an operating state. In this embodiment, the opening angle of the retractable door mirror is changed to eliminate the blind spot on the diagonally rear side when changing lanes while traveling.
It can be changed in 3 stages: a at storage, b at normal time, and c at wide angle,
It is an electric retractable door mirror that greatly improves the visibility of the mirror.

In FIG. 1, a moving vehicle 1 such as an automobile
In the driver's seat of No. 1, the driving control panel 17 is arranged in front of the steering wheel 12, and the driving control panel 1
7 rear-view mirrors 15 and 16 (in this example, only the rear-view mirror 16 mounted on the right side surface of the driver's seat is shown, but in general, it is also provided on the left side of the moving vehicle. And here, the rear-view mirror 16 on the right side
A remote control panel 13 for adjusting the viewing angle is provided. In addition, 21 is a direction indicator, 20 is a control part, 22 is a rear-view mirror drive device controlled by the control part 20.

As shown concretely in FIG. 2, the remote control panel 13 has selection switches 13c and 13d for the left and right rearview mirrors 15 and 16 and wide-angle switches 13e and 13f.
And a normal switch 13b and a storage switch 13a. The switch 13e is operated when the left rearview mirror 15 is selected by driving the selection switch 13c, and the switch 13f is operated when the right rearview mirror 1 is selected.
It is operated when 6 is selected by driving the selection switch 13d.

Further, in the present embodiment, each switch of the remote control panel 13 is adapted to interlock with the direction indicator 21 shown in FIG. The direction indicating lever of the direction indicator 21 is normally in the neutral state indicated by 21a, and when changing the direction to the left, move the direction indicating lever to the state indicated by 21c and change the direction to the right. When it does, it is moved to the state indicated by 21b. By operating this direction indicating lever, one of the switches 21d and 21e arranged at the base thereof is turned on.

The operation of such an embodiment will be described below. The operations in the "normal time" and the "storage time" are the same as the operation of the rear-view mirror of the automobile so far, and therefore detailed operations are omitted. If the direction indicator lever is operated downward in FIG. 3 to change to the right lane or turn to the state of 21b,
The switch 21e of the direction indicator 21 is turned on, the wide-angle switch 13f is energized, and the right rear-view mirror drive device
(For example, a servo motor) is driven to move the right rear-view mirror so that the viewing angle seen from the driver's seat becomes larger than usual. As a result, a wide field of view of the side surface of the moving vehicle is secured, and the state of the side surface of the moving vehicle when changing lanes or making a right turn can be confirmed with a wide viewing angle. Therefore, a blind spot diagonally behind the moving vehicle can be eliminated.

When the direction indicator lever is operated upward in FIG. 3 to change to the lane or turn to the left, the switch 21d of the direction indicator 21 is turned on, the wide angle switch 13e is energized, and the left rear-view mirror is turned on. Drive
(For example, a servo motor) is driven to move the left rear-view mirror so that the viewing angle seen from the driver's seat becomes larger than usual. As a result, a wide field of view of the side surface of the moving vehicle is ensured, and the state of the side surface of the moving vehicle when changing lanes or turning left can be confirmed with a wide viewing angle. Therefore, a blind spot diagonally behind the moving vehicle can be eliminated.

FIGS. 4A and 4B show the difference between the present invention and the conventional viewing angle, where A is the normal viewing angle and B is the blind spot. In the conventional normal viewing angle of FIG. 4A, the blind spot B occurs even if it is slightly away from the side surface of the moving vehicle.
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 (b), the rearview mirror has a wide viewing angle, so that the rearview mirror can be confirmed even at a rear position away from the side surface of the moving vehicle. Therefore, the conventional blind spot range on the rear side surface could be largely eliminated automatically only by performing a normal driving operation. As a result, for example, it is possible to display a new field of view that cannot be seen with conventional door mirrors, and it is possible to change course with a margin and safely. In addition, the automatic automatic change of the mirror greatly expands the field of view of the mirror, especially when changing lanes, at the confluence, when turning left, etc., and can greatly improve the safety during driving.

(Embodiment 2) In Embodiment 1, the operation is described on the assumption that the wide-angle switch 13f of the remote control panel 13 is operated, but the wide-angle switch 13f of the remote control panel 13 is omitted and the direction indicating lever 21a is omitted. 3 is operated up or down in FIG. 3 from the neutral state, the rear-view mirror drive device 22 is driven under the control of the control unit 20 to drive the rear-view mirror 15 or 16 on the side of which the direction is instructed to drive the wide-field To be cornered.

When the direction indicating lever is returned to the neutral state, the rearview mirror is returned to the standard viewing angle state.
By doing so, it is possible to set a wide viewing angle on the side where it is necessary to automatically widen and confirm the field of view without causing the driver to perform any operation.

(Embodiment 3) In Embodiments 1 and 2 described above, the viewing angle is changed to two levels, that is, the standard angle and the wide angle angle. For example, this change in the viewing angle of the rearview mirror is associated with the steering wheel operation amount, and when the steering wheel operation amount is small, the viewing angle is widened from the standard by a slight angle corresponding to the steering wheel operation amount, and when the steering wheel operation amount is large. A wider viewing angle may be used.

In this case, since there is an idle operation amount of the steering wheel, the viewing angle of the rearview mirror may be changed when the steering wheel is operated by a predetermined amount. Also, when changing the viewing angle of the rearview mirror, if the initial change amount is made larger than the subsequent change amount, the change of the visual field in the steering wheel operation direction will be large at the first stage. Has the advantage that it can be done smoothly.

(Embodiment 4) Also, this system is
The present invention is not limited to the retractable mirror described above, but can be used for a mirror structure having a mirror surface portion of a door mirror that can be drive-adjusted. The system configuration in this case is the same as that of each embodiment described above.

(Embodiment 5) Further, in this system, a drive confirmation sound generator 14 interlocked with a direction indicator 21 as shown in the center of FIG. 1 can be provided. With the current direction indicator, only a monotonous sound "click, click" was made, but in this embodiment,
By changing the left and right sounds or making a melody, it may be possible to confirm in which direction the sound is going.

(Embodiment 6) FIGS. 5 and 6 show another example of the embodiment of the present invention, particularly when a driver or the like gets on and off a moving vehicle in a dark place, or This is an example of checking the rear side of the moving vehicle (for example, the rear wheels or the vicinity thereof) when parking backwards. That is, when parking, turning around on a narrow road shoulder, moving backward on a bad road, or moving backward on a night road, it may be necessary to confirm the visual field condition behind the side surface of the moving vehicle.

In such a case, in this embodiment,
In order to eliminate the above-mentioned blind spot, the auxiliary mirror 33 and the lamp 3 are provided near the shoulder of the door body 32 accommodating the member for raising and lowering the window glass 31 and near the maximum movable end of the door.
4 are arranged. Incidentally, 35 is a knob for opening and closing the door, and 36 is a storage glove.

In FIG. 5, the auxiliary mirror 33 and the lamp 34 incorporated in the door 30 have a unit structure, and when the door 30 is opened, the lamp 34 is shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), the rear side surfaces D1, D of the moving vehicle
The mounting and performance of the lamp 34 is defined so as to illuminate the two areas. In addition, the auxiliary mirror 33 is also the door 3
The mounting angle will be determined so that the required area of the rear side surface of the moving vehicle can be visually recognized when 0 is opened.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the unit configuration of the auxiliary mirror 33 and the lamp 37, and switches 38a, 38
The lamp 37 is turned on / off by operating b. However, it goes without saying that, instead of these switches, the lights may be automatically turned on when the door is opened.

(Embodiment 7) In FIG. 5, the auxiliary mirror 33 may be removed and only the lamp 34 may be independently installed on the inner wall portion of the door. This is useful when performing a driving operation even in a dark time such as at night. Conventional automobiles are also equipped with a number of lighting lights, including headlights, but apart from room lights, most of the lighting lamps were concentrated on the front and rear of the car body. For this reason, there is a drawback that the road surface condition of the side surface portion of the vehicle body and the portion directly below the rear portion is dark and cannot be seen.

Further, the workability of loading and unloading trucks and the like at night, etc. is poor in the darkness, and it is inconvenient to check the load and hang ropes. In such a case, if the lamp 34 is attached to the door, when the vehicle is parked in a dark place, when driving backwards when changing directions, when loading or unloading during parking, checking of the load, rope It is characterized by using a lighting lamp equipped with the door open when hanging. this is,
Since the illumination angle can be adjusted at the same time by adjusting the opening / closing angle of the door, a wide range of illumination can be easily obtained.

This lamp can be mounted on most vehicles, from light vehicles to large trucks. The state of the rear side surface of the vehicle body and the load, the state of the ground contact surface of the tire and the state of the road surface in the rear peripheral portion are lighted up, and the visibility in a dark place can be greatly improved. Note that FIG.
In FIG. 7, the right side portion is described as a representative, but it should be understood that the same device is provided on the left side portion.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, a moving vehicle with a wider viewing angle than a normal rearview mirror is provided according to the driving state of the moving vehicle (right turn, left turn, lane change, get off, night). You can check the status of both sides of the driver's seat.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a side blind spot elimination device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a relationship between angular position control of a remote control panel and a door mirror of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a relationship between angular position control of a direction indicator lever and a door mirror.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a relationship between an angle of a door mirror and a visual field.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the side dead zone eliminating device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a view showing a main part of the side-face blind spot elimination device shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the side blind spot elimination device shown in FIGS. 5 and 6.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... Moving vehicle, 12 ... Steering wheel, 13 ... Remote control panel, 13a ... Storage switch, 13b ... Normal switch, 13c ... Left side switch, 13d Right side switch, 13e ...・ Left wide-angle switch, 13f ... Right wide-angle switch, 14 ... Voice generating device, 16 ... Rearview mirror, 17 ... Driving control panel, 20 ... Control unit,
21 ... Direction indicator, 22 ... Rearview mirror drive device, A ・
..Normal viewing angle, B ... Blind spot, 30 ... Door, 31 ... Window glass, 32 ... Door body, 33 ... Auxiliary mirror, 34 ... Illumination lamp, 35 ... Opening / closing knob, 36 ... storage glove,
D1, D2 ... Lamp irradiation area and mirror-field of view area.

Claims (15)

[Claims] 1. A both-sides confirmation device is provided on both sides of a driver's seat of a moving vehicle and capable of visually confirming a blind spot in a normal state according to the driving state of the moving vehicle. A side blind spot elimination device for moving vehicles. 2. The both-sides confirmation device includes rearview mirrors provided on both sides of a driver's seat of a moving vehicle, and an angle at which the sideview of the moving vehicle can be confirmed from the driver's seat according to a driving state. A rear-view mirror drive means that is variable in a plurality of stages, and a switch means that is connected to the rear-view mirror drive means and controls the rear-view mirror drive means by a driver's manual operation to change the angle of the rear-view mirror. The side blind spot eliminating device for a moving vehicle according to claim 1, wherein 3. The side blind spot eliminating device for a moving vehicle according to claim 2, wherein the switch means is composed of a plurality of switches corresponding to changes in the angle of the rearview mirror. 4. The plurality of switches of the switch means comprises:
The side blind spot eliminating device for a moving vehicle according to claim 3, wherein the device is arranged in a peripheral portion of the direction indicator and / or the direction indicating lever. 5. The side blind spot eliminating device according to claim 2, wherein the switch means is composed of one rotary switch. 6. A control unit for switching the switch means in association with at least a driver's operation of changing the state of the moving vehicle.
The side blind spot elimination device for a moving vehicle described. 7. The side blind spot eliminating device for a moving vehicle according to claim 5, wherein the control unit switches the switch in conjunction with the operation of the turn signal indicator. 8. The side blind spot eliminating device for a moving vehicle according to claim 5, wherein the control unit controls the switch means based on an operation angle of an operation of a direction indicator and an operation of a steering wheel. 9. The double-sided confirmation device changes the angle of the rear-view mirrors provided on both side surfaces with respect to the driver's seat of a moving vehicle, and the rear-view mirrors according to the steering wheel operation amount and the operation direction of the direction indicating lever. The side surface of the mobile vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising: a control unit and a rear-view mirror drive unit that drives the rear-view mirror so that a predetermined viewing angle of the driver is obtained under the control of the control unit. Blind spot elimination device. 10. The side blind spot elimination of a moving vehicle according to claim 8, wherein the control unit drives the rear-view mirror drive means when the steering wheel operation is over a predetermined operation angle. apparatus. 11. The control unit drives the rear-view mirror driving means such that a first viewing angle of the rear-view mirror changed is larger than a subsequent viewing angle change. The side blind spot eliminating device for a moving vehicle according to claim 8 or 9. 12. The moving vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the both-sides confirmation device has a rear confirmation illumination lamp in a dark place inside a door on a driver's seat side, a passenger's seat side, or a rear part of the driver's seat. Side blind spot confirmation device. 13. A side blind spot confirmation device for a moving vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising an auxiliary mirror mounted adjacent to the illumination lamp so that a rear view can be confirmed when the door is opened. . 14. The side blind spot confirmation device for a moving vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the both side face confirmation device generates an operation sound when activated. 15. The side blind spot confirmation device for a moving vehicle according to claim 14, wherein the operating sound is a sound or a melody that is different between left and right.