JP2008162305A - Vehicular illumination detection device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an illumination detection device with easy mounting capable of reducing the mounting man-hour, reducing cost and maintaining a front visual field of a driver sufficient. <P>SOLUTION: The vehicular illumination detection device is provided with a first illumination detection means 41 for detecting illumination at a front side of the vehicle, and a second illumination detection means 42 for detecting illumination at a periphery of the vehicle, and controls a lighting fixture of the vehicle based on a comparison result of the illumination detected by the first and second illumination detection means 41, 42 with a predetermined set threshold value. The first and second illumination detection means 41, 42 are arranged adjacent to each other and are collected to one illumination detection unit 1. The illumination detection unit 1 is installed on an instrument panel 2 near a border with a front windshield glass and at the outside of a predetermined visual field angle of the driver. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle illuminance detection device.

There is known an autolight system that detects the illuminance outside the vehicle and automatically turns on and off lights such as vehicle width lamps and headlamps according to the illuminance.
For example, Patent Literature 1 includes a front illuminance sensor that detects illuminance in a narrow-angle range in front of a vehicle and an ambient illuminance sensor that detects illuminance in a wide-angle range around the vehicle, and detection values of both illuminance sensors are predetermined. An auto light system is disclosed that automatically turns on the lamp when it falls below the threshold value. When the front illuminance sensor and the ambient illuminance sensor are used together in this way, it is possible to prevent the lamp from being automatically lit when it is not necessary to turn it on, for example, when passing under a short overpass.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-261141

  However, conventionally, a front illuminance sensor and an ambient illuminance sensor are prepared separately, and the front illuminance sensor needs to be incident from the front of the vehicle. It was installed on the instrument panel because it was necessary to allow light to enter from the periphery.

For this reason, the two illuminance sensors have to be attached to different places, which increases the number of mounting steps and increases the cost.
In addition, since the front illuminance sensor and the ambient illuminance sensor are installed at different locations, the synchronization between the detection of the front illuminance sensor and the detection of the ambient illuminance sensor is unstable, and the operation accuracy of automatic lighting and automatic extinction of the lamp is reduced was there.

  Accordingly, the present invention provides an illuminance detection device for a vehicle that is easy to mount, can reduce the number of mounting steps and cost, and can maintain a driver's front view well.

The vehicle illuminance detection apparatus according to the present invention employs the following means in order to solve the above problems.
The invention according to claim 1 is a first illuminance detecting means for detecting the illuminance in front of the vehicle (for example, a first illuminance detecting means 41 in an embodiment described later) and a second illuminance for detecting the illuminance around the vehicle. A vehicle based on a comparison result between the illuminance detected by the first and second illuminance detection means and a preset threshold value. In the vehicular illuminance detecting device for controlling the lamp, the first and second illuminance detecting means are arranged adjacent to each other and are combined into one illuminance detecting unit (for example, the illuminance detecting unit 1 in the embodiment described later). The illuminance detection unit is connected to the front windshield glass (for example, the front windshield glass 3 in the embodiments described later) (for example, the embodiments described later). Definitive boundary 4) near an instrument panel (for example, characterized in that it is provided with a dashboard 2) outside a predetermined viewing angle of the driver in the embodiment to be described later.

By configuring in this way, the first illuminance detecting means for detecting the illuminance in front of the vehicle and the second illuminance detecting means for detecting the illuminance around the vehicle can be installed at the same position. Even if it exists, the influence of the disturbance can be shared, and the detection results of the first and second illuminance detection means can always be synchronized.
Also, since the first illuminance detection means and the second illuminance detection means are combined into one illuminance detection unit and this illuminance detection unit is installed on the instrument panel, the first and second illuminance detection means can be easily attached. It is.
Furthermore, since the illuminance detection unit is an instrument panel near the boundary with the front windshield glass and is installed outside the driver's predetermined viewing angle, the driver's front view is not obstructed. Note that the outside of the driver's predetermined viewing angle can be outside the range of the driver's field of view while traveling at a vehicle speed of about 40 km / hr, for example.

According to the invention of claim 1, since the first and second illuminance detection means can be installed at the same position, the detection results of the first and second illuminance detection means can always be synchronized, The operating accuracy of the lamp can be improved.
In addition, since an illuminance detection unit in which the first and second illuminance detection means are combined into one is only required to be installed on the instrument panel, it is easy to install, requires less man-hours for installation, and reduces manufacturing costs. be able to.
Furthermore, since the illuminance detection unit is installed outside the driver's predetermined viewing angle, the front view can be maintained well without hindering the driver's front view.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of a vehicle illuminance detection device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings of FIGS. In the following description, the front / rear, left / right, and up / down directions coincide with the front / rear, left / right, and up / down directions of the vehicle body unless otherwise specified.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a front part of a passenger compartment, and an illuminance detection unit 1 as an illuminance detection device for a vehicle is installed on an instrument panel 2 and outside a predetermined viewing angle of a driver. Here, the outside of the predetermined viewing angle of the driver can be, for example, outside the range of viewing of the driver during traveling at a vehicle speed of about 40 km / hr. Specifically, the illuminance detection unit 1 includes an instrument panel 2 in the vicinity of the boundary 4 with the front windshield glass (hereinafter abbreviated as “front glass”) 3 and in the vicinity of the front pillar 5 on the driver's seat side. Is installed.

As shown in FIG. 2, a cloth sealer coating 7 is provided around the inner surface of the windshield 3 to prevent the inside from the outside of the vehicle.
The illuminance detection unit 1 includes a housing 10 that is mounted in a mounting hole 6 provided in the instrument panel 2. The housing 10 includes a base portion 11 having a U-shaped cross section and a flange portion 12 that extends in the horizontal direction from the upper end of the base portion 11. The housing 10 is fixed to the instrument panel 2 by a predetermined fixing means (for example, fitting or the like) by inserting the base portion 11 into the mounting hole 6 and placing the flange portion 12 on the upper surface of the instrument panel 2. The

  The bottom plate portion 13 of the base portion 11 includes a front illuminance sensor 21 including a light receiving element (for example, a photodiode) that detects the illuminance in front of the vehicle and a light receiving element (for example, a photodiode) that detects the illuminance around the vehicle. And an ambient illuminance sensor 22 are installed adjacent to each other. More specifically, the front illuminance sensor 21 is disposed in front of the center of the bottom plate portion 13, the ambient illuminance sensor 22 is disposed slightly behind the front illuminance sensor 21, and the front illuminance sensor 21 has a predetermined height. It is surrounded by an annular light shielding rib 14 having the same.

  The front and rear lenses 31 and 32 are attached to the flange portion 12 of the housing 10 so as to cover the base portion 11. The lens 31 disposed in the front is a lens that collects light within a narrow-angle range in front of the vehicle (for example, the condensing angle is within 20 degrees) and enters the front illuminance sensor 21, and is disposed rearward. The lens 32 is a lens that collects light in a wide angle range around the vehicle (for example, a condensing angle of 45 degrees or more) and causes the light to enter the ambient illuminance sensor 22. Hereinafter, the lens 31 is referred to as a narrow-angle lens 31, and the lens 32 is referred to as a wide-angle lens 32. The narrow-angle lens 31 is cut into a predetermined shape so as to have the above-described function, and the wide-angle lens 32 is formed into a curved surface having a predetermined thickness.

The exit surface 33 of the included angle lens 31 is inserted into the light shielding rib 14 and is disposed to face the front illuminance sensor 21. Further, the surface 34 of the narrow-angle lens 31 that faces the wide-angle lens 32 is shielded from light by applying a non-transparent coating, and light incident on the narrow-angle lens 31 is emitted to the wide-angle lens 32 side to be wide-angle lens 32. To prevent interference.
The light shielding rib 14 prevents light incident on the wide-angle lens 32 from entering the narrow-angle lens 31, and only light emitted from the exit surface 33 of the narrow-angle lens 31 enters the front illuminance sensor 21. I am doing so.
In this embodiment, the front illuminance sensor 21 and the narrow angle lens 31 constitute a first illuminance detection means 41, and the ambient illuminance sensor 22 and the wide angle lens 32 constitute a second illuminance detection means 42.

  According to the illuminance detection unit 1 configured as described above, since the front illuminance sensor 21 and the ambient illuminance sensor 22 can be installed at the same position, even if there is a disturbance that affects the illuminance detection, the influence of the disturbance is affected. The detection results of the front illuminance sensor 21 and the ambient illuminance sensor 22 can always be synchronized. As a result, it is possible to improve the operation accuracy when operating a lamp such as a headlamp based on the illuminance detected by the front illuminance sensor 21 and the ambient illuminance sensor 22.

  Further, since the front illuminance sensor 21 and the ambient illuminance sensor 22 are combined into one illuminance detection unit 1 and the illuminance detection unit 1 is installed on the instrument panel 2, the illuminance detection unit 1 can be easily attached, and the number of mounting steps is also increased. It can be reduced and the manufacturing cost can be reduced.

  Furthermore, since the illuminance detection unit 1 is an instrument panel 2 near the boundary with the windshield 3 and is installed outside the driver's viewing angle, the front view of the driver is not obstructed and the front view is good. Can be maintained.

  Next, the illuminance detection unit 1 is used to detect the illuminance in front of the vehicle and the illuminance around the vehicle, and based on the detection results, the vehicle headlamps and the width lights (both not shown) are automatically turned on. An example of the control to automatically turn off will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The automatic lighting / extinguishing control routine shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3 is repeatedly executed by a control device (not shown).

  First, in step S101, the illuminance around the vehicle detected by the ambient illuminance sensor 22 (hereinafter referred to as ambient illuminance) is read, and the illuminance in front of the vehicle detected by the front illuminance sensor 21 in step S102 (hereinafter referred to as forward illuminance). Read).

  Next, proceeding to step S103, it is determined whether or not the processing of steps S101 and S102 has been executed a predetermined number of times (N times), in other words, whether or not the number of readings of ambient illuminance and forward illuminance has reached the predetermined number N. To do. Note that the predetermined number N is set in advance, and can be set to an appropriate number such as 5 times, 10 times, or 15 times.

  If the determination result in step S103 is “NO” (less than N times), the process returns to step S101, and the processes in steps S101 to S103 are repeated. Note that the series of processing in steps S101 to S103 is executed at short time intervals such as 100 msec intervals.

If the determination result in step S103 is “YES” (N times), the process proceeds to step S104, and the average value of the ambient illuminance read in step S101 for N times (hereinafter referred to as a moving average value of the ambient illuminance). calculate.
Next, proceeding to step S105, an average value of N times of forward illuminance read in step S102 (hereinafter referred to as a moving average value of forward illuminance) is calculated.

Next, the process proceeds to step S106, and it is determined whether or not the moving average value of ambient illuminance calculated in step S104 is smaller than a preset threshold value X.
If the determination result in step S106 is “NO” (moving average value of ambient illuminance ≧ X), the process proceeds to step S107, the lamps such as the headlamps are turned off, and the execution of this routine is temporarily terminated.

If the determination result in step S106 is “YES” (moving average value of ambient illuminance <X), the process proceeds to step S108, and the moving average value of forward illuminance calculated in step S105 is smaller than a preset threshold Y. It is determined whether or not.
If the determination result in step S108 is “NO” (moving average value of forward illuminance ≧ Y), the process proceeds to step S107, the lamps such as the headlamps are turned off, and the execution of this routine is temporarily terminated.

  If the determination result in step S108 is “YES” (moving average value of forward illuminance <Y), the process proceeds to step S109, lights such as headlamps are turned on, and the execution of this routine is temporarily terminated.

  That is, in this embodiment, when the moving average value of the ambient illuminance is smaller than the threshold value X and the moving average value of the front illuminance is smaller than the threshold value Y, the lamp is automatically turned on. When any one of the moving average values is larger than the threshold value X or Y, the lamp is automatically turned off. Thereby, for example, when it is not necessary to turn on the lamp as when traveling in a tunnel having a short distance or in a valley of a building, it is possible to prevent the lamp from being automatically turned on.

Further, each of the ambient illuminance detected by the ambient illuminance sensor 22 and the front illuminance detected by the front illuminance sensor 21 is not directly compared with the threshold values X and Y to determine whether to turn on / off, The average value (moving average value) of the illuminance data for each batch is calculated, and this moving average value is compared with the threshold values X and Y to determine whether to turn on / off. Hunting can be suppressed.
Then, the sensitivity of the illuminance detection unit 1 can be easily changed by changing the number of data when calculating the moving average value (that is, the predetermined number N). Conventionally, for example, since the sensitivity is changed by changing the gain resistance of the illuminance sensor, it is not easy to change the sensitivity.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show, for example, the temporal illuminance detected every 100 msec by the front illuminance sensor 21 and the moving average value obtained by averaging the front illuminance. The solid line in the figure represents every 100 msec. The detected forward illuminance and the broken line indicate the moving average value. 4 is an example in which the moving average value is calculated at N = 5 times, and FIG. 5 is an example in which the moving average value is calculated at N = 15 times, assuming the same data of the front illuminance detected every 100 msec. .
For example, when the lamp lighting threshold Y is 1000 Lux, when the moving average value is calculated at N = 5 in FIG. 4, the lamp is temporarily turned on at about 3000 msec, but N = 15 in FIG. When the moving average value is calculated, the lamp is not lit even at the same time (about 3000 msec). That is, by setting the number of times N large, the sensitivity can be reduced.

[Other Examples]
The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above.
For example, a plurality of narrow-angle lenses and wide-angle lenses with different incident directions are prepared, and the optimum combination of the narrow-angle lens and the wide-angle lens according to the mounting angle of the illuminance detection unit to the vehicle body (that is, depending on the vehicle type) It is preferable to set a small incident angle.

  In the above-described embodiment, the illuminance detection unit is installed in the instrument panel near the front pillar on the driver's seat side, but the instrument panel is near the boundary with the front windshield glass and has a predetermined viewing angle of the driver. If it is outside, the illuminance detection unit may be arranged at another position on the instrument panel.

1 is a perspective view of a front portion of a vehicle compartment provided with a vehicle illuminance detection device according to the present invention. It is sectional drawing of the illumination intensity detection apparatus for vehicles. It is a flowchart of automatic lighting on / off control in the embodiment. It is the time chart (the 1) which compared the detected illumination intensity and the result of averaging this. It is the time chart (the 2) which compared the detected illumination intensity and the result of averaging this.

Explanation of symbols

1 Illuminance detection unit (vehicle illuminance detection device)
2 instrument panel 3 windshield glass 4 boundary 21 front illuminance sensor (first illuminance detection means)
22 Ambient illuminance sensor (second illuminance detection means)
31 Narrow-angle lens (first illuminance detection means)
32 Wide-angle lens (second illuminance detection means)
41 First illuminance detection means 42 Second illuminance detection means

Claims (1)

A first illuminance detecting means for detecting the illuminance in front of the vehicle and a second illuminance detecting means for detecting the illuminance around the vehicle, the illuminance detected by the first and second illuminance detecting means being set in advance. In the vehicle illuminance detection device for controlling the lamp of the vehicle based on the comparison result with the threshold value,
The first and second illuminance detection means are arranged adjacent to each other and combined into one illuminance detection unit, and the illuminance detection unit is an instrument panel near the boundary with the front windshield glass. An illuminance detecting device for a vehicle, wherein the illuminance detecting device is installed outside a predetermined viewing angle.

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