JP2017144802A - Vehicular lighting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To control lighting in an environment inside and/or outside of a vehicle while suppressing power consumption.SOLUTION: A vehicular lighting device 1 includes: lighting means 10 for irradiating outside of a vehicle and/or the outside; and ECU 13 acquiring time information as an inside of the vehicle included in a timepiece 11 or as an outside of the vehicle acquired by a navigation part 12 and controlling operation of the lighting means using at least determination based on the time information.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicular illumination device used in a vehicle such as an automobile.

  In-vehicle lamps that illuminate the interior of vehicles are widely used as conventional vehicle lighting devices, but in recent years, drivers and other occupants get on and off the vehicle to illuminate the interior and exterior of the vehicle. Techniques for assisting boarding and exiting have been proposed.

  As an example of such a technique, Patent Document 1 discloses that when a driver with a key approaches a vehicle, the headlamp is turned on, and when the door opening / closing detection means detects that the door is opened, A technique is disclosed in which the inner sill irradiation unit is turned on after the lighting.

JP 2011-105163 A

  The above conventional techniques have the following problems. That is, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, the lighting control of the headlights and the like is performed bidirectionally between the key having a communication function carried by the driver and the ECU in the vehicle that the driver has approached the vehicle. Detection is based on communication. However, this means that the ECU periodically performs an operation of transmitting or receiving radio waves, which increases the power consumption of the battery mounted on the vehicle and may cause a so-called battery exhaustion.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicular illumination device that can control illumination in and / or outside the vehicle while suppressing power consumption. .

  In order to achieve the above object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided lighting means for illuminating the outside and / or outside of a vehicle and time information from inside or outside the vehicle, and at least the time information is obtained. And a control unit that controls the operation of the lighting unit using a determination based on the vehicle lighting device.

  In another aspect, the present invention further includes illuminance detection means for detecting illuminance around the vehicle, and the control means is a case where the time information satisfies a condition for not operating the illumination means. And when the said illumination intensity detection means detects the illumination intensity below a predetermined value, it is good also as what controls the said illumination means to operate | move.

  The present invention as described above has an effect that it is possible to control the illumination of the environment inside and / or outside the vehicle while suppressing power consumption.

The perspective view which shows the vehicle by which the illuminating device for vehicles which concerns on embodiment of this invention is used. The block diagram which shows the structure of the illuminating device for vehicles which concerns on embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the flowchart which shows operation | movement of the illuminating device for vehicles which concerns on embodiment of this invention. The block diagram which shows the structure of the illuminating device for vehicles which concerns on other embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the flowchart which shows operation | movement of the illuminating device for vehicles which concerns on other embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a vehicle in which a vehicle lighting device according to an embodiment of the present invention is incorporated. As shown in FIG. 1, a vehicle 100 such as a hatchback type four-wheeled vehicle is located on a side surface of a vehicle body 110, closes a passenger compartment 110x, and forms a side wall of the passenger compartment, and a front door 120 and a rear door 130; A back door 140 is provided on the back surface of the vehicle body 110 to close the cargo compartment and form the rear wall of the compartment.

  In the vehicle body 110, a vehicle exterior foot lamp 111 is disposed below the front door 120, and a vehicle interior foot lamp 121 is disposed below the front door 120 on the surface facing the passenger compartment 110x. The light illuminates the environment outside and inside the vehicle 100 indicated by a region G in the figure, and assists the driver and other passengers to get on and off. Note that the vehicle underfoot lamp 111 and the vehicle underfoot lamp 121 may be configured to include only one of them as long as they can illuminate the environment inside and outside the vehicle 100.

  Next, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the vehicular lighting device of the present embodiment. The vehicular illumination device 1 is disposed on the illumination means 10 corresponding to the vehicle exterior footlight 111 and the vehicle interior footlight 121, the instrument panel in the passenger compartment, etc., and displays the time to the occupant and is also an air conditioner or the like. A timepiece 11 that provides a reference time for other devices in the vehicle 100, a navigation unit 12 that obtains information such as the position of the vehicle by a signal from a GPS satellite, and calculates the current position of the vehicle, a memory, a CPU, and the like are provided. ECU 13 that acquires time information described later from the clock 11 or the navigation unit 12 and controls the operation of the illumination means 10. Note that the navigation unit 12 and the timepiece 11 may have either one.

  In the above configuration, the vehicle lighting device 1 corresponds to the vehicle lighting device of the present invention, the lighting means 10 corresponds to the lighting means of the present invention, the ECU 13 corresponds to the control means of the present invention, and the ECU 13 corresponds to the timepiece 11. Or the time information acquired from the navigation part 12 is corresponded to the time information of this invention.

  The vehicular lighting apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment having the above-described configuration is characterized in that the lighting and turning-off operation of the lighting unit 10 is controlled based on time information that the ECU 13 acquires from the timepiece 11 or the navigation unit 12.

  Hereinafter, the control operation of the illumination unit 10 by the ECU 13 in the vehicle lighting device 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3.

  First, as step S <b> 10, the ECU 13 acquires time information from the timepiece 11 or the navigation unit 12. Here, the time information is information obtained from the timepiece 11 that indicates the current time generated based on the clock included in the timepiece 11, and is treated as information obtained from the vehicle 100 in the ECU 13. The time information acquired from the navigation unit 12 is information indicating the current time generated based on the time information included in the satellite signal received from the GPS satellite, and is information acquired from outside the vehicle 100 in the ECU 13. Be treated.

  Next, as step S11, the ECU 13 determines whether or not the acquired time is daytime depending on whether or not it is included in a predetermined time zone (for example, 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM) set in the memory in advance. . Here, the time zone may be set at the time of factory shipment or the like, or may be set by a user operation.

  If the current time based on the time information is not daytime, the process proceeds to step S12, and the ECU 13 performs control to operate the illumination unit 10. Thereby, in the vehicle 100, the vehicle exterior footlight 111 and the vehicle footlight 121 are placed in a lighting state, and a series of operations is completed.

  On the other hand, when the current time based on the time information is daytime, the process proceeds to step S13, and the ECU 13 performs control not to operate the illumination unit 10. As a result, in the vehicle 100, the vehicle underfoot lamp 111 and the vehicle underfoot lamp 121 are kept off.

  In addition, when the operation | movement of step S12 or S13 is complete | finished, it is preferable to return to step S10 again and to loop the judgment based on time information. Thereby, the operation of turning on and off the illumination means 10 is automatically controlled according to the time.

  As described above, according to the vehicular illumination device of the embodiment of the present invention, the operation of the illumination unit 10 is controlled based on the time information that the ECU 13 acquires from outside or inside the vehicle. When the time information in the vehicle is acquired like the clock 11, the power consumption becomes a level necessary for the exchange of information between the communication buses with the ECU 13. When the time information outside the vehicle is acquired like the navigation unit 12, the navigation The operation of the unit 12 is performed intermittently, and the satellite radio wave reception by the ECU 13 is unidirectional, and the power consumption required for communication is smaller than when other devices are used.

  Therefore, it is possible to control lighting in the vehicle interior and / or outside the vehicle while suppressing power consumption.

  Next, FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a vehicular illumination apparatus 2 according to another embodiment of the present invention. However, in FIG. 4, the same or corresponding components as those in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals and detailed description thereof is omitted. The auto light sensor 14 is a means for measuring the illuminance outside the vehicle 100, provided outside the vehicle 100 or inside the vehicle through which external light can be transmitted through a windshield or the like.

  Such a vehicular lighting device 2 controls the lighting operation of the lighting unit 10 based on the illuminance outside the vehicle measured by the autolight sensor 14 together with the time information acquired from the timepiece 11 or the navigation unit 12 by the ECU 13. That is, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5, step S10 is executed in the same manner as the vehicular lighting device 1, and when the ECU 13 determines that the environment outside the vehicle 100 is daytime in step S11, the process proceeds to step S15. Then, the illuminance outside the vehicle 100 is acquired as information from the auto light sensor 14, and it is determined whether or not the illuminance is equal to or less than a predetermined value preset in the memory.

  If the illuminance is less than or equal to a predetermined value, it is assumed that there is a small amount of light outside the vehicle and the occupant cannot visually confirm the vehicle 100, and the process proceeds to step S13 to perform control to turn on the illumination means 10. On the other hand, if the illuminance is greater than the predetermined value, the amount of light outside the vehicle is large, and it is assumed that the occupant is in an environment where the vehicle 100 can be visually confirmed, the process proceeds to step S14, and the ECU 13 performs control not to operate the illumination means 10. Do.

  As described above, the vehicular illumination device 2 includes the auto light sensor that measures the illuminance outside the vehicle 100, so that in addition to the effect of the vehicular illumination device 1, the vehicle illumination device 2 can be parked even when it is stopped in the daytime. When necessary, it is possible to illuminate the environment outside the vehicle and perform more precise control.

  As described above, the vehicular lighting device according to each embodiment of the present invention controls the lighting and extinguishing operations of the lighting unit 10 based on the time information acquired by the ECU 13 from the timepiece 11 or the navigation unit 12. It becomes possible to control the illumination of the environment inside and / or outside the vehicle while suppressing power consumption.

  However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment.

  In the above description, the information acquired from the timepiece 11 provided in the vehicle 100 is used as an example of the time information of the present invention. However, the time information acquired from the inside of the vehicle of the present invention is the vehicle 100. As long as it can be acquired from the inside, a clock included in any ECU including the ECU 13 may be used. Similarly, if the time information acquired from the outside of the vehicle of the present invention can be acquired from the outside of the vehicle 100 by communication, a standard radio wave used for a radio timepiece may be used in addition to a GPS signal. Good.

  Furthermore, in the above description, as an example of the illumination means of the present invention, the vehicle underfoot lamp 111 disposed below the front door 120 of the vehicle 100 and the vehicle underfoot lamp 121 disposed below the front door 120 are given. However, the illumination means of the present invention may suffice as long as it illuminates the environment inside and / or outside the vehicle in order to assist the driver and other passengers to get on and off, and is limited by the position, purpose, and other specific configuration in the vehicle. However, a conventional technical means such as a taillight, a vehicle width lamp, and an interior lamp may be used.

  As described above, the present invention is a vehicular illumination device, which obtains time information from outside or / and outside of a vehicle and the inside or outside of the vehicle, and based on at least the time information. It is only necessary to include control means for controlling the operation of the illumination means using judgment, and is not limited by other specific purposes, applications, and configurations.

  Therefore, the present invention may be implemented by adding various modifications to the above-described embodiment, including those described above, as long as they do not depart from the gist of the present invention.

  The present invention as described above has an effect that it is possible to control the lighting in the vehicle interior and / or the environment outside the vehicle while suppressing power consumption, and is useful in application to, for example, automobiles.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1, 2 Vehicle lighting device 10 Lighting means 12 Navigation part 13 ECU
14 Auto light sensor 100 Vehicle 110 Car body 110x Passenger compartment 111 Outboard footlight 120 Front door 121 Inboard footlight 130 Rear door 140 Back door

Claims (1)

Lighting means for illuminating the outside and / or outside of the vehicle;
Control means for obtaining time information from the inside or outside of the vehicle and controlling the operation of the lighting means using a determination based on at least the time information;
Vehicle lighting device.

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