JP2013113698A - Infrared sensor device and control method of infrared sensor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an infrared sensor device and a control method of an infrared sensor in which malfunctions caused by sunlight can be reduced.SOLUTION: On the basis of date/time information and a vehicle traveling direction acquired from a navigation section 6, in the case of traveling toward the west in the early morning or traveling toward the east in the evening, a microcomputer 8 increases the number of times of photodetection in a PD 4b1 or increases the quality of light emission in a light-emitting diode (LED) 2.

Description

  The present invention is provided in a moving body such as a vehicle, and a light receiving element receives reflected light reflected from an infrared light emitted from a light emitting element, and the object is detected based on the reflected light received by the light receiving element. The present invention relates to an infrared sensor device for detecting approach and a method for controlling the infrared sensor.

  For example, in an automobile or the like, an infrared sensor device may be used for prior detection of an operation of an audio or an air conditioner (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  An infrared sensor device includes a light emitting element such as an LED (light emitting diode) that emits infrared light (infrared light), and a photodiode that receives reflected light reflected from an object such as a hand by infrared light emitted from the light emitting element. A light receiving element and a detection circuit for detecting the approach of an object such as a hand from the result of light received by the light receiving element are provided.

  This type of infrared sensor device detects the approach of the hand based on the reflected reflected light of the emitted infrared light, and, as in the vehicle switch illumination device described in Patent Document 1, the audio of an automobile, the illumination of an air conditioner, etc. Can be turned on to improve the operability of the device.

JP-A-8-113098

  However, since the infrared sensor device detects the approach of an object using infrared light, if sunlight is incident on the light receiving element, the sunlight is mistakenly detected as reflected light, resulting in malfunction. There was a problem that. In particular, when an infrared sensor device is provided in a moving body such as a vehicle, the direction of the light receiving element changes depending on the moving direction (traveling direction) of the moving body. There is a need for countermeasures against malfunction caused by light.

  Then, this invention makes it a subject to provide the control method of the infrared sensor apparatus and infrared sensor which can reduce the malfunctioning by sunlight, for example.

  In order to solve the above problem, an infrared sensor device according to claim 1 is provided in a moving body, and a light emitting element that emits infrared light, and the infrared light emitted from the light emitting element is reflected by an object. Sunlight for obtaining an incident direction of sunlight in an infrared sensor device comprising: a light receiving element that receives reflected light; and a detection unit that detects approach of the object based on the reflected light received by the light receiving element. Incident direction acquisition means, determination means for determining whether the incident direction of sunlight acquired by the sunlight incident direction acquisition means is directed to the light receiving element, and the determination means is the incident direction of sunlight. Control means for changing so as to increase the amount of operation of at least one of the light emitting element and the light receiving element when it is determined that is suitable for the light receiving element. It is.

  The infrared sensor control method according to claim 6, wherein the light receiving element provided on the moving body receives the reflected light reflected from the object by the infrared light emitted from the light emitting element provided on the moving body, In the control method of the infrared sensor for detecting the approach of the object based on the reflected light received by the light receiving element, the solar light incident direction acquisition step for acquiring the solar light incident direction and the solar light incident direction acquisition step. When the determination step of determining whether the incident direction of sunlight is directed to the light receiving element and the determination step determines that the incident direction of sunlight is directed to the light receiving element, And a control step of changing so as to increase an operation amount of at least one of the light emitting element and the light receiving element.

1 is a block diagram of an infrared sensor device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart of the object detection operation | movement of the infrared sensor apparatus shown by FIG. It is explanatory drawing of the detection process of the reflected light of the infrared sensor apparatus shown by FIG. It is a flowchart of the object detection operation | movement of the infrared sensor apparatus concerning the 2nd Example of this invention.

  Hereinafter, an infrared sensor device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the infrared sensor device according to an embodiment of the present invention, the sunlight incident direction acquisition unit acquires the incident direction of sunlight, and the determination unit receives the sunlight incident direction acquired by the sunlight incident direction acquisition unit. It is determined whether or not the light is incident on the element, and when the determination unit determines that the incident direction of sunlight is directed toward the light receiving element, the control unit is configured to transmit at least one of the light emitting element and the light receiving element. Since the operation amount is changed to increase, the operation amount should be set so that at least one of the light emitting element and the light receiving element is prevented from malfunctioning due to sunlight only when there is a high possibility of malfunction due to the influence of sunlight. Can be changed.

  The control means may increase the number of times of light reception of the light receiving element when the determination means determines that the incident direction of sunlight is directed to the light receiving element. By doing so, when there is a possibility that sunlight may enter, the accuracy of detecting reflected light of infrared light emitted from the light emitting element can be increased by increasing the number of times the light receiving element receives light. Malfunction due to light can be reduced. Also, since the number of times of light reception is increased only when the determination means determines that the incident direction of sunlight is toward the light receiving element, the decrease in the reaction speed due to the increase in the number of light receptions is limited to a specific state. And adverse effects on the reaction rate can be minimized.

  The control unit may increase the light emission amount of the light emitting element when the determination unit determines that the incident direction of sunlight is directed to the light receiving element. By doing in this way, when sunlight may enter, stronger light can be emitted and it can be made hard to misrecognize sunlight as reflected light. Further, by emitting strong light, it becomes easy to distinguish from sunlight, so that the number of times of light reception by the light receiving element can be reduced, and the reaction speed can be shortened.

  Further, the sunlight incident direction acquisition means includes date and time acquisition means for acquiring the current date and time, and traveling direction acquisition means for acquiring the current traveling direction of the moving body, and the control means is acquired by the date and time acquisition means. If the current date and time acquired by the travel direction acquisition means is westward, or the current date and time acquired by the date and time acquisition means is the evening and the current direction acquired by the travel direction acquisition means When the traveling direction of the moving body is eastward, the movement amount of at least one of the light emitting element and the light receiving element may be changed. In this way, as a result of specifying the position on the sun from the date and time and combining it with the traveling direction of the moving body, sunlight is received when traveling westward in the early morning or traveling eastward in the evening. It can be determined that the light easily enters the element.

  In addition, an illuminance detection unit that detects the illuminance in the vicinity of the light receiving element is provided, and the control unit detects at least one of the light emitting element and the light receiving element when the illuminance detected by the illuminance detection unit is equal to or higher than a predetermined illuminance. You may change so that one operation amount may be increased. By doing so, the amount of operation of the light emitting element or the light receiving element is increased only when sunlight enters the vicinity of the light receiving element and the light is somewhat bright, that is, when the weather is fine, etc. Is less likely to be incident, it is not necessary to increase the amount of operation of the light emitting element or the light receiving element.

  In the infrared sensor control method according to the embodiment of the present invention, the sunlight incident direction is acquired in the sunlight incident direction acquisition step, and the sunlight incident direction acquired by the sunlight incident direction acquisition unit in the determination step is If it is determined whether or not the light is incident on the light receiving element, and it is determined in the determination step that the incident direction of sunlight is directed toward the light receiving element, the control step includes at least one of the light emitting element and the light receiving element. The operation amount is set so that at least one of the light emitting element and the light receiving element is prevented from malfunctioning due to sunlight only when there is a high possibility of malfunction due to the influence of sunlight. Can be changed.

  A navigation device 1 including an infrared sensor device according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The navigation device 1 is attached to an instrument panel of a car as a moving body. As shown in FIG. 1, the navigation device 1 includes a light emitting LED 2, a current control circuit 3, an infrared sensor unit 4, a GPS receiver 5, a navigation unit 6, an illuminance sensor 7, and a microcomputer 8. I have. Although not shown, the navigation device 1 also includes a recording device such as a hard disk in which map information and the like are stored, and display means for displaying various information such as map information.

  The light emitting LED 2 as a light emitting element is composed of n light emitting LEDs 21 to 2n as shown in FIG. 1, and is provided on a surface (front surface) facing the user of the case of the navigation device 1 (not shown). Yes. The light emitting LED 2 emits infrared light under the control of the current control circuit 3 and the infrared sensor unit 4. Further, the n light emitting LEDs 2 are sequentially turned on one by one in the order of, for example, the light emitting LED 21, the light emitting LED 22, ..., the light emitting LED 2n.

  The current control circuit 3 supplies a current for emitting light to the light emitting LED 2 under the control of the microcomputer 8.

  The infrared sensor unit 4 includes a light emission processing unit 4a and a light reception processing unit 4b. The light emission processing unit 4 a controls the light emission timing such as the light emission order of the light emitting LEDs 2. The light receiving processing unit 4b as a detecting means includes a photodiode (PD) 4b1 that receives infrared light as a light receiving element, and the PD 4b1 receives light at a predetermined timing. The PD 4b1 is provided in front of the case of the navigation device 1 (not shown). When the light emission timing of the light emitting LED 2 is acquired from the light emission processing unit 4a, and it is determined whether the signal level received by the PD 4b1 is due to the reflected light of the light emitting LED 2 or due to sunlight, and is due to the reflected light Determines the approach of the object based on the signal level of the reflected light.

  The GPS receiver 5 as a sunlight incident direction acquisition means and a date acquisition means periodically receives radio waves including positioning data such as latitude and longitude information of the current location and date / time information from a plurality of GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites. Are received and output to the navigation unit 6.

  The navigation unit 6 serving as the sunlight incident direction acquisition means and the traveling direction acquisition means includes the positioning data received by the GPS receiver 5 and the map information recorded in the recording means such as a hard disk (not shown) from the current location to the destination. The route is being calculated. The navigation unit 6 includes a gyro sensor and calculates the current traveling direction of the vehicle. Information such as the calculated route and traveling direction is displayed on a display means such as a liquid crystal display (not shown) to guide to the destination. The date / time information received by the GPS receiver 5 and the traveling direction information acquired by the gyro sensor are output to the microcomputer 8.

  The illuminance sensor 7 as illuminance detection means is provided in the vicinity of the PD 4b1 of the light receiving processing unit 4b, detects the illuminance (brightness) in the vicinity of the PD 4b1, and outputs it to the microcomputer 8.

  The microcomputer 8 serving as a determination unit and a control unit is a microcomputer incorporating a CPU, a memory, and the like. Date / time information acquired from the navigation unit 6 and information on the traveling direction of the vehicle and the vicinity of the PD 4b1 acquired from the illuminance sensor 7 are used. Based on the illuminance, the infrared sensor unit 4 is controlled to increase the number of times the PD 4b1 receives light.

  In the present embodiment, the light emitting LED 2, the current control circuit 3, the infrared sensor unit 4, the GPS receiver 5, the navigation unit 6, the illuminance sensor 7, and the microcomputer 8 are used in the first embodiment of the present invention. The infrared sensor device 10 according to the embodiment is configured.

  Next, the object detection operation of the infrared sensor device 10 having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The flowchart shown in FIG. 2 is executed by the microcomputer 8.

  First, in step S101, light emission of the light emitting LED 2 is always started, and the process proceeds to step S102. Starting the light emission of the light-emitting LEDs 2 in this step means that not all the light-emitting LEDs 2 continue to emit light, but repeating the operation of sequentially emitting each light-emitting LED 2 one by one at a predetermined interval.

  Next, in step S102, it is determined whether or not the brightness (illuminance) detected by the illuminance sensor 7 is greater than or equal to a predetermined value. If it is greater than or equal to a predetermined value (in the case of yes), the process proceeds to step S103. If there is (in the case of no), the process proceeds to step S109. That is, when the illuminance detected by the illuminance detection means is equal to or higher than a predetermined illuminance, the subsequent processing, that is, the number of times of light reception by the light receiving element is increased.

  Next, in step S103, it is determined whether the date / time information acquired from the navigation unit 6 is early morning. If it is early morning (in the case of yes), the process proceeds to step S104, and if not early morning (in the case of no). ) Proceeds to step S107. Whether or not it is early in the morning is a time zone in which the sun is at a low position and sunlight is likely to enter the PD 4b1 provided in front of the instrument panel of the vehicle. Since the position of the sun varies depending on the season (date), for example, a time zone for determining early morning in one year may be set in advance in a table or the like for each day and referred to.

  Next, in step S104, it is determined whether or not the traveling direction of the vehicle acquired from the navigation unit 6 is traveling westward. If the vehicle is traveling westward (in the case of yes), the process proceeds to step S105, and the vehicle is directed westward. If the vehicle is not traveling (in the case of no), the process proceeds to step S109. In this step, since it is determined that it is early morning in step S103, it is determined whether the vehicle is traveling in a direction in which sunlight easily enters the front of the instrument panel of the vehicle. That is, since the morning sun shines from the east, sunlight is likely to enter from the rear of the vehicle when traveling west. Therefore, it can be said that it is a state in which sunlight easily enters the PD 4b1 provided on the front surface of the instrument panel. That is, in steps S103 and S104, a sunlight incident direction acquisition step of acquiring the sunlight incident direction and a determination step of determining whether the sunlight incident direction is incident on the light receiving element are performed. .

  Next, in step S105, the number of light received by the PD 4b1 is increased more than usual, and the process proceeds to step S106. That is, since it is determined that the incident direction of sunlight is incident on the light receiving element, this is a control step for increasing the number of times the light receiving element receives light. That is, in the present embodiment, the number of times of light reception is changed as the operation amount.

  An example of the light receiving operation in the infrared sensor device 10 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a graph showing time on the horizontal axis and the signal level (light reception level) of the light received by the PD 4b1 on the vertical axis. The higher the light reception level, the stronger the light received. In the case of FIG. 3, light is received three times, M1, M2, and M3. Of the three times of light reception, the light emitting LED 2 emits light immediately before M2. That is, M2 is a light receiving level including both sunlight and reflected light of the light emitting LED 2, and M1 and M3 are light receiving levels of only sunlight. Since the light reception processing unit 4b knows when the light emitting LED 2 emits light based on a signal from the light emission processing unit 4a, it understands that the light reception level of M2 may include the reflected light of the light emitting LED 2. it can. That is, the timing of M2 is set according to the light emission timing of the light emitting LED 2.

Here, the light reception level of the reflected light of the light emitting LED 2 at the time point M2 can be calculated by the following equation (1).
Light reception level of reflected light = M2 level− (M1 level + M3 level) / 2 (1)

  Equation (1) measures the sunlight level at M1 and M3, which are the timings before and after M2, and subtracts the sunlight level from the level received at M2 at M2 including the reflected light level of light emitting LED 2. Thus, the level of the reflected light of the light emitting LED 2 is calculated. In order to distinguish sunlight and the reflected light of the light emitting LED 2 more accurately, it is necessary to repeat the above-described equation (1). That is, it is necessary to repeat the operation shown in FIG. 3 many times. That is, increasing the number of times of light reception in step S103 means increasing the number of times of calculating the expression (1) by repeating the operation shown in FIG.

  Next, in step S106, the PD 4b1 receives light at the number of times of light reception set in step S105 or step S109 described later, and causes the light reception processing unit 4b to determine the presence or absence (approach) of the object. This determination may be, for example, the approach of an object when reflected light is detected, or may be the approach of an object when the reflected light level is equal to or higher than a predetermined level.

  On the other hand, in step S107, it is determined whether or not the date / time information acquired from the navigation unit 6 in step S103 is evening. If it is evening (in the case of yes), the process proceeds to step S108. If (no), the process proceeds to step S109. Whether it is evening or not is determined in the same manner as in step S103 whether the sun is at a low position and the sun is easily incident on the PD 4b1 provided in front of the instrument panel of the vehicle. Since the position of the sun varies depending on the season (date), for example, a time zone determined as evening in one year may be set in advance for each day in a table or the like as in the early morning.

  Next, in step S108, it is determined whether or not the traveling direction of the vehicle acquired from the navigation unit 6 is traveling eastward. If the vehicle is traveling eastward (in the case of yes), the process proceeds to step S105. If the vehicle is not traveling east (in the case of no), the process proceeds to step S109. In this step, since it was determined to be evening in step S107, it is determined whether the vehicle is traveling in a direction in which sunlight is likely to enter the front of the instrument panel of the vehicle. In other words, since the sunset shines from the west, when traveling eastward, sunlight is likely to enter from behind the vehicle. Therefore, it can be said that it is a state in which sunlight easily enters the PD 4b1 provided on the front surface of the instrument panel. That is, steps S107 and S108 are also a sunlight incident direction acquisition step and a determination step.

  Next, in step S109, the number of light received by the PD 4b1 is set as the normal number of received light, and the process proceeds to step S106.

  According to the present embodiment, based on the date / time information acquired from the navigation unit 6 and the traveling direction of the vehicle, in the case of traveling westward in the early morning or traveling eastward in the evening, the microcomputer 8 receives the number of times of light reception by the PD 4b1. Therefore, the accuracy of detecting reflected light of infrared light emitted from the light emitting LED 2 can be increased by increasing the number of times of light reception only when there is a high possibility of malfunction due to the influence of sunlight. Malfunction due to light can be reduced.

  Further, since the number of times of light reception is increased only when the incident direction of sunlight acquired by the navigation unit 6 which is the sunlight incident direction acquisition unit is directed to the PD 4b1, the reaction speed due to the increase in the number of light receptions. Can be reduced only to a specific state, and adverse effects on the reaction rate can be minimized.

  In addition, when the brightness in the vicinity of PD4b1 detected by the illuminance sensor 7 is greater than or equal to a certain level, the date / time information and the traveling direction of the vehicle are performed. In the case where the weather is sunny, the number of light reception times of the PD 4b1 is increased. When there is a low possibility that sunlight is incident such as cloudy or rainy, it is not necessary to increase the number of light reception times of the PD 4b1.

  Next, an infrared sensor device 10 according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The same parts as those in the first embodiment described above are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.

  In this embodiment, the configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment (FIG. 1), but the object detection operation is different. The object detection operation of the infrared sensor device 10 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step S201, light emission of the light emitting LED 2 is always started, and the process proceeds to step S202. Starting the light emission of the light-emitting LEDs 2 in this step means that not all the light-emitting LEDs 2 continue to emit light, but repeating the operation of sequentially emitting each light-emitting LED 2 one by one at a predetermined interval.

  Next, in step S202, it is determined whether or not the brightness (illuminance) detected by the illuminance sensor 7 is greater than or equal to a predetermined value. If it is greater than or equal to a predetermined value (if yes), the process proceeds to step S203. If there is (in the case of no), the process proceeds to step S209. That is, when the illuminance detected by the illuminance detection means is equal to or higher than a predetermined illuminance, the subsequent processing, that is, the amount of light received by the light receiving element is increased.

  Next, in step S203, it is determined whether the date / time information acquired from the navigation unit 6 is early morning. If it is early morning (if yes), the process proceeds to step S204, and if not early morning (if no) ) Proceeds to step S207. Whether or not it is early in the morning is a time zone in which the sun is at a low position and sunlight is likely to enter the PD 4b1 provided in front of the instrument panel of the vehicle. In addition, since the position of the sun varies depending on the season (date), for example, a time zone determined as early morning in one year may be set in advance for each day using a table or the like.

  Next, in step S204, it is determined whether or not the traveling direction of the vehicle acquired from the navigation unit 6 is traveling westward. If the vehicle is traveling westward (in the case of yes), the process proceeds to step S205. If the vehicle is not traveling (in the case of no), the process proceeds to step S209. In this step, since it is determined in step S203 that it is early morning, it is determined whether the vehicle is traveling in a direction in which sunlight is easily incident on the front surface of the instrument panel of the vehicle. That is, since the morning sun shines from the east, sunlight is likely to enter from the rear of the vehicle when traveling west. Therefore, it can be said that it is a state in which sunlight easily enters the PD 4b1 provided on the front surface of the instrument panel. That is, a sunlight incident direction obtaining step for obtaining the incident direction of sunlight in steps S203 and S204 and a determination step for determining whether the incident direction of sunlight is incident on the light receiving element are performed.

  Next, in step S205, the light emission amount of the light emitting LED 2 is increased, and the process proceeds to step S206. In this step, the current of the light emitting LED 2 is increased in the current control circuit 3. That is, when it is determined that the incident direction of sunlight is incident on the light receiving element, the light emission amount of the light emitting element is increased (control step). That is, in this embodiment, the amount of light emission is changed as the operation amount.

  In the first embodiment, the number of times of light reception by the PD 4b1 is increased when sunlight is likely to be incident. However, in the present embodiment, the light emission amount of the light emitting LED 2 is different. That is, by increasing the light emission amount of the light emitting LED 2, the light receiving level of the reflected light is also increased, so that it is easy to distinguish from sunlight. In short, since the threshold level for determining that the light is reflected can be set high, it is possible to easily eliminate the influence of sunlight.

  Next, in step S206, the light emitting LED 2 is caused to emit light with the light emission amount set in step S205 or step S209 described later, and the light reception processing unit 4b determines the presence or absence (approach) of the object. This determination may be, for example, the approach of an object when reflected light is detected, or may be the approach of an object when the reflected light level is equal to or higher than a predetermined level.

  On the other hand, in step S207, it is determined whether or not the date / time information acquired from the navigation unit 6 in step S203 is evening. If it is evening (in the case of yes), the process proceeds to step S208. If (no), the process proceeds to step S209. Whether it is evening or not is determined in the same manner as in step S203, when the sun is at a low position and it is a time zone in which sunlight is likely to enter the PD 4b1 provided in front of the instrument panel of the vehicle. Since the position of the sun varies depending on the season (date), for example, a time zone determined as evening in one year may be set in advance for each day in a table or the like as in the early morning.

  Next, in step S208, it is determined whether or not the traveling direction of the vehicle acquired from the navigation unit 6 is traveling eastward. If the vehicle is traveling eastward (in the case of yes), the process proceeds to step S205. If the vehicle is not traveling east (in the case of no), the process proceeds to step S209. In this step, since it was determined to be evening in step S207, it is determined whether the vehicle is traveling in a direction in which sunlight is easily incident on the front surface of the instrument panel of the vehicle. In other words, since the sunset shines from the west, when traveling eastward, sunlight is likely to enter from behind the vehicle. Therefore, it can be said that it is a state in which sunlight easily enters the PD 4b1 provided on the front surface of the instrument panel. That is, steps S207 and S208 are also a sunlight incident direction acquisition step and a determination step.

  Next, in step S209, the light emission amount of the light emitting LED 2, that is, the current of the light emitting LED is set to a normal value, and the process proceeds to step S206.

  According to the present embodiment, based on the date / time information acquired from the navigation unit 6 and the traveling direction of the vehicle, the amount of light emitted from the light emitting LED 2 is increased when traveling westward in the early morning or traveling eastward in the evening. Therefore, only when there is a high possibility of malfunction due to the influence of sunlight, it is possible to increase the amount of light emission and make it difficult to misrecognize sunlight as reflected light.

  In addition, when the incident direction of sunlight acquired by the navigation unit 6 which is the sunlight incident direction acquisition unit is directed to the PD 4b1, it emits stronger light, so that reflected light stronger than usual can be obtained. The number of times of light reception by the PD 4b1 can be reduced. Specifically, for example, the number of calculations of the above-described equation (1) can be reduced to one time instead of being performed twice. Therefore, the reaction speed of the infrared sensor device 10 can be shortened.

  The two embodiments described above may be combined. That is, the number of light received by the light receiving element may be increased by increasing the light emission amount of the light emitting LED 2. By doing in this way, the reflected light of the infrared light which the light emission LED2 radiate | emitted can be detected more correctly.

  According to the embodiment described above, the following infrared sensor device 10 and infrared sensor control method can be obtained.

(Supplementary note 1) A light emitting LED 2 that is provided in a vehicle and emits infrared light, PD4b1 that receives reflected light that is reflected by the infrared light emitted from the object, and an approach of the object based on the reflected light that is received by PD4b1 In the infrared sensor device 10 including the light receiving processing unit 4b for detecting
A GPS receiver 5 for acquiring the incident direction of sunlight, a navigation unit 6, and
A microcomputer 8 that determines whether or not the incident direction of sunlight acquired by the navigation unit 6 is directed to the PD 4b1;
If the microcomputer 8 determines that the incident direction of sunlight is directed to the PD 4b1, the microcomputer 8 changes so as to increase at least one of the light emission amount of the light emitting LED 2 or the number of light reception times of the PD 4b1,
An infrared sensor device 10 comprising:

(Supplementary note 2) PD4b1 provided in the vehicle receives reflected light reflected from an object by infrared light emitted from the light emitting LED 2 provided in the vehicle, and approaches the object based on the reflected light received by PD4b1. In the control method of the infrared sensor to detect,
Steps S203 and S204 for acquiring the incident direction of sunlight,
Steps S203 and S204 for determining whether or not the incident direction of sunlight acquired in step S203 is toward the PD 4b1,
If it is determined that the incident direction of sunlight acquired in steps S203 and S204 is toward PD4b1, step S205 is changed to increase at least one of the light emission amount of the light emitting LED 2 and the number of light reception times of the PD4b1. When,
An infrared sensor control method comprising:

  According to the infrared sensor device 10 and the control method of the infrared sensor, the malfunction due to sunlight of at least one of the light emitting LED 2 and the PD 4b1 is avoided only when there is a high possibility of malfunction due to the influence of sunlight. The amount of light emission or the number of times of light reception can be changed.

  In addition, the Example mentioned above only showed the typical form of this invention, and this invention is not limited to an Example. That is, various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

2 Light-emitting LED (light-emitting element)
4 Infrared sensor unit 4b Light reception processing unit (detection means)
4b1 PD (light receiving element)
5 GPS receiver (sunlight incident direction acquisition means, date acquisition means)
6 Navigation unit (sunlight incident direction acquisition means, travel direction acquisition means)
7 Illuminance sensor (Illuminance detection means)
8 Microcomputer (determination means, control means)
S203 Determine whether the time is early morning (sunlight incident direction acquisition step, determination step)
S204 Determine whether the vehicle is traveling westward (sunlight incident direction acquisition step, determination step)
S205 Increasing the number of times of light emission (control step)

Claims (6)

A light-emitting element that is provided on the moving body and emits infrared light; a light-receiving element that receives reflected light reflected by the infrared light emitted from the light-emitting element; and the reflected light received by the light-receiving element Detecting means for detecting the approach of the object based on the infrared sensor device,
Sunlight incident direction acquisition means for acquiring the incident direction of sunlight;
Determining means for determining whether or not the incident direction of the sunlight acquired by the sunlight incident direction acquiring means is directed to the light receiving element;
When the determination unit determines that the incident direction of sunlight is directed to the light receiving element, the control unit changes so as to increase the amount of operation of at least one of the light emitting element or the light receiving element. When,
An infrared sensor device comprising:   2. The infrared ray according to claim 1, wherein the control unit increases the number of times of light reception of the light receiving element when the determination unit determines that the incident direction of sunlight is directed to the light receiving element. 3. Sensor device.   The said control means increases the light-emission amount of the said light emitting element, when the said determination means determines with the incident direction of the said sunlight being suitable for the said light receiving element. Infrared sensor device. The sunlight incident direction acquisition means includes date and time acquisition means for acquiring the current date and time, and travel direction acquisition means for acquiring the current travel direction of the moving body,
When the current date and time acquired by the date and time acquisition unit is early in the morning and the current traveling direction of the moving body acquired by the traveling direction acquisition unit is westward, or the date and time acquisition unit acquires the control unit. When the current date and time is evening and the current travel direction of the moving body acquired by the travel direction acquisition means is eastward, the operation amount of at least one of the light emitting element and the light receiving element is increased. The infrared sensor device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the infrared sensor device is changed so as to be performed. Illuminance detection means for detecting the illuminance in the vicinity of the light receiving element,
The control means is changed so as to increase an operation amount of at least one of the light emitting element and the light receiving element when the illuminance detected by the illuminance detecting means is equal to or higher than a predetermined illuminance. The infrared sensor device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: The light receiving element provided on the moving body receives the reflected light reflected from the light emitted from the light emitting element provided on the moving body, and the object is based on the reflected light received by the light receiving element. In the control method of the infrared sensor for detecting the approach of
A sunlight incident direction acquisition step for acquiring the incident direction of sunlight;
A determination step of determining whether or not the incident direction of the sunlight acquired in the sunlight incident direction acquiring step is directed to the light receiving element;
When it is determined in the determination step that the incident direction of sunlight is directed to the light receiving element, control is performed so as to increase the amount of operation of at least one of the light emitting element or the light receiving element. Steps,
An infrared sensor control method comprising:

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