JP2017165178A - Illuminating device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To appropriately call for attention by emitting light.SOLUTION: An illuminating device (10) for a vehicle comprises: detection means (110, 120, 130, 210) that detect the position and moving direction of an object (30) present around the own vehicle (20); determination means (220) that determines on the basis of the position and moving direction of the object whether the object is a target calling for attention; and emitting means (230, 300) designed such that, (i), light (50) is emitted to a first position visible from the target, in order to call for attention due to the target, and, (ii), light (60) is emitted to a second position visible from a driver of the own vehicle and different from the first position, in order to call for attention of the driver of the own vehicle.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a technical field of an illumination device for a vehicle that alerts a person by irradiating light around the vehicle.

  As this type of device, a technique is known in which attention is paid to the approach of the host vehicle by irradiating light toward an object existing around the host vehicle. In addition, a technique for presenting information to the driver of the host vehicle by using light irradiated to an object is known. Patent Document 1 proposes a technique of presenting information on the moving direction of an object and the distance to the own vehicle to the driver of the own vehicle with the same light as the light that alerts the object. Yes.

JP 2008-143510 A

  In the technique described in Patent Document 1, an irradiation pattern such as a T shape, a Y shape, or an arrow shape is drawn on the road surface around the host vehicle. This irradiation pattern is an irradiation pattern for the purpose of notifying the driver of information on the pedestrian (specifically, information on the distance to the pedestrian and the direction in which the pedestrian exists). Since the irradiation pattern has such a purpose, this irradiation pattern is not an irradiation pattern having a special meaning for a pedestrian. Therefore, a pedestrian walking in the vicinity of the road surface irradiated with the irradiation pattern may simply recognize that the light is irradiated without recognizing that the irradiation pattern has a special meaning. There is. Alternatively, there is a possibility that the meaning of the irradiation pattern is recognized as incorrect.

  As described above, when presenting an irradiation pattern common to the driver and the pedestrian, the viewpoint is different between the driver and the pedestrian, and therefore it is not possible to recognize each as appropriate information. A point arises.

  This invention is made | formed in view of the said problem, and makes it a subject to provide the illuminating device for vehicles which can alert appropriately by irradiating light.

  In order to solve the above problems, the vehicle lighting device according to the present invention is configured to detect the position and moving direction of an object existing around the host vehicle, and to detect the object based on the position and moving direction of the object. Determining means for determining whether or not the object is to be aroused; and (i) irradiating the first position visible from the object with light for alerting the object; (Ii) irradiating means for irradiating light for alerting the driver of the host vehicle to a second position that is visible from the driver of the host vehicle and is different from the first position; Is provided.

  According to the vehicle lighting device of the present invention, the first position that can be visually recognized from the object is irradiated with light for alerting the object. On the other hand, light for alerting the driver of the host vehicle is irradiated at a position visible from the driver of the host vehicle. Thereby, the driver | operator of a target object and the own vehicle can recognize correctly the alerting (namely, meaning which the irradiated light has) with respect to each. For this reason, it is possible to suitably alert each of the object and the driver of the own vehicle with different viewpoints.

  The effect | action and other gain of this invention are clarified from the form for implementing demonstrated below.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the illuminating device for vehicles which concerns on embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of operation | movement of the illuminating device for vehicles which concerns on embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the irradiation pattern for objects, and the irradiation pattern for drivers | operators. It is a top view which shows the example of irradiation of the irradiation pattern with respect to a pedestrian.

  An embodiment according to a vehicle lighting device of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Hereinafter, the configuration of the vehicle lighting device, the operation of the vehicle lighting device, a specific example of the irradiation pattern, the irradiation position of the irradiation pattern, and the technical effect obtained by the vehicle lighting device will be described in order.

<Configuration of vehicle lighting device>
First, the structure of the vehicle lighting device according to the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the vehicular lighting device according to the embodiment.

  In FIG. 1, a vehicular lighting device 10 according to an embodiment is mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile, and irradiates light on a predetermined range around an object to be alerted (for example, a pedestrian or the like). Therefore, it is possible to call attention to the host vehicle. The vehicular illumination device 10 includes an in-vehicle camera 110, a radar 120, a communication device 130, an ECU 200, and an irradiation unit 300.

  The in-vehicle camera 110 is a camera that can image a front area of the vehicle (in other words, an area corresponding to the driver's field of view). The vehicle-mounted camera 110 may be a camera that captures images using visible light, or may be a camera that captures images other than visible light (for example, infrared rays). An image captured by the in-vehicle camera 110 is output to the surrounding environment information acquisition unit 210 as image data.

  The radar 120 is a radar capable of recognizing an object existing in the front area of the vehicle. The radar 120 is configured to be able to detect the position, moving speed, and the like of an object existing around the vehicle using a millimeter wave or a laser. Information about the object detected by the radar 120 is output to the surrounding environment information acquisition unit 210.

  The communication device 130 is configured to be able to receive information related to the surrounding environment of the vehicle by wireless communication. Specifically, the communication device 130 performs inter-vehicle communication, road-to-vehicle communication, or inter-pedal communication, and receives information related to other vehicles and pedestrians. The communication device 130 may be configured to be able to transmit information related to the host vehicle. Information received by the communication device 130 is configured to be output to the surrounding environment information acquisition unit 210.

  The ECU 200 is a controller unit having an arithmetic circuit such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and is configured to be able to control various operations in the vehicle. The ECU 200 according to the present embodiment is particularly configured to be able to perform control for drawing an irradiation pattern, which will be described later. The ECU 200 includes a surrounding environment information acquisition unit 210, an irradiation target determination unit 220, and an irradiation information generation unit 230 as logical or physical processing blocks realized therein.

  The surrounding environment information acquisition unit 210 converts the information output from each of the in-vehicle camera 110, the radar 120, and the communication device 130 into the surrounding environment information (that is, information indicating the surrounding environment of the vehicle, particularly information related to objects existing around the vehicle). ) Can be acquired as. The surrounding environment information acquired by the information acquisition unit 210 is output to the irradiation target determination unit 220. The information acquisition unit 210 functions as a specific example of “detection unit” together with the in-vehicle camera 110, the radar 120, and the communication device 130.

  The irradiation target determination unit 220 is configured to be able to detect an object present around the vehicle using the surrounding environment information input from the surrounding environment information acquisition unit 210. Here, the “object” is an object that can be a target for alerting, and is typically a moving body (an object that may move) such as a pedestrian, bicycle, or other vehicle.

  The irradiation target determination unit 220 is further configured to be able to determine whether or not the detected object is a target. Here, the “object” is an object to be alerted using an irradiation pattern, and for example, a pedestrian crossing the front of a road on which the host vehicle is traveling is exemplified. Information related to the object determined by the irradiation object determining unit 220 (for example, information indicating the attribute, position, moving direction, moving speed, etc. of the object) is output to the irradiation information generating unit 230. The irradiation target determination unit 220 is a specific example of “determination unit”.

  The irradiation information generation unit 230 is configured to be able to generate irradiation information (for example, the presence / absence of irradiation, irradiation position, type of irradiation pattern, etc.) based on the determination result of the irradiation target determination unit 220. Specific processing executed by the irradiation information generation unit 230 will be described in detail later in the description of the operation. The irradiation information generated by the irradiation information generation unit 230 is output to the irradiation unit 300 as an irradiation command signal.

  The irradiation unit 300 includes a light (for example, a headlight of a vehicle) that can change the direction and pattern of the light to be irradiated, and based on an irradiation command signal input from the irradiation information generation unit 230 The predetermined irradiation pattern and a predetermined range around the host vehicle can be irradiated with a predetermined irradiation pattern. That is, the irradiation unit 300 is configured to be able to irradiate irradiation patterns at least two different positions. The irradiation unit 300 functions as a specific example of the “irradiation unit” together with the irradiation information generation unit 230.

<Operation of vehicle lighting device>
The operation of the vehicular lighting device 10 according to the embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of the operation of the vehicle lighting device according to the embodiment. Note that each process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 2 is executed by each part of the ECU 200 during the operation of the vehicle lighting device 10.

  In FIG. 2, during operation of the vehicular illumination device 10 according to the present embodiment, the surrounding environment information detected by the in-vehicle camera 110, the radar 120, and the communication device 130 is acquired by the surrounding environment information acquisition unit 210 (step S101). ).

  Subsequently, the irradiation target determination unit 220 determines whether or not an object exists around the host vehicle 20 (step S102). If it is determined that no object exists (step S102: NO), the subsequent processing is omitted, and the series of processing ends. This is because it can be determined that there is no object that should be alerted in the vicinity of the host vehicle 20. In this case, the ECU 200 may perform the process of step S101 again after a predetermined time has elapsed.

  On the other hand, if it is determined that an object is present around the host vehicle 20 (step S102: YES), the irradiation target determination unit 220 determines whether or not the object is an object to be alerted. Determination is made (step S103). Whether or not the object is a target may be determined based on, for example, the possibility of collision between the host vehicle 20 and the object, or visibility around the host vehicle 20 or the object.

  If it is determined that the object is not a target (step S103: NO), the subsequent processing is omitted and a series of processing ends. This is because it can be determined that there is no object to be alerted around the host vehicle 20. In this case, the ECU 200 may perform the process of step S101 again after a predetermined time has elapsed.

  When it is determined that the object is a target (that is, attention should be given) (step S103: YES), the irradiation information generation unit 230 generates information about the target pattern (step S103). S104). In addition, the pattern for objects is an irradiation pattern for performing alerting regarding the subject vehicle with respect to the objects. About the pattern for objects, the shape and irradiation position are determined based on the information regarding an object (for example, the position of a target object, relative speed, etc. which were seen from the own vehicle).

  The irradiation information generation unit 230 further generates irradiation information related to the driver pattern (step S105). Note that the driver pattern is an irradiation pattern for alerting the driver of the host vehicle regarding the object. About the pattern for drivers | operators, the shape and irradiation position are determined based on the information regarding a target object (for example, the position of a target object, relative speed, etc. which were seen from the own vehicle) similarly to the irradiation pattern for target persons. .

  When the information regarding the object pattern and the driver pattern is generated, the irradiation unit 300 performs irradiation of the irradiation pattern (step S106). Specifically, an irradiation command signal indicating the irradiation information determined in steps S104 and S105 is output to the irradiation information generation unit 230 and the irradiation unit 300. Accordingly, the irradiation unit 300 irradiates the predetermined pattern around the target object with the target pattern, and irradiates the driver pattern with the predetermined range around the host vehicle.

  When the irradiation pattern is irradiated and a series of processing ends, the ECU 200 may perform step S101 again after a predetermined time has elapsed.

<Specific example of irradiation pattern>
Next, specific examples of the irradiation pattern for the object and the irradiation pattern for the driver will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the irradiation pattern for the object and the irradiation pattern for the driver. In addition, each pattern shown in FIG. 3 is a pattern used when a target object is a pedestrian.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the object pattern is irradiated as a pattern including a “surprise mark (exclamation mark)”. The exclamation mark is generally recognized as a mark meaning “caution” or “danger”. For this reason, it is expected that the object that visually recognizes the object pattern pays attention to the surroundings.

  Further, the object pattern may be irradiated as a pattern including a car figure and an arrow. It is expected that an object that visually recognizes such an object pattern recognizes the presence of the vehicle and the approaching direction of the vehicle.

  On the other hand, the driver pattern is irradiated as a pattern including an arrow indicating the movement of the pedestrian. It is expected that the driver of the own vehicle who has seen such a driver pattern recognizes the movement of the pedestrian and performs a driving operation (for example, deceleration of the vehicle) that avoids danger to the pedestrian. .

  The driver pattern may be irradiated as a pattern including a human figure. An object that visually recognizes such a driver pattern is expected to recognize the presence of a pedestrian and perform a driving operation to avoid danger to the pedestrian.

<Irradiation position of irradiation pattern>
Next, irradiation positions of the irradiation pattern for the object and the irradiation pattern for the driver will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a top view showing an irradiation example of an irradiation pattern for a pedestrian.

  In the example shown in FIG. 4, a pedestrian 30 who wants to cross the roadway exists in front of the host vehicle 20. If this pedestrian 30 continues to cross the roadway, the host vehicle 20 and the pedestrian 30 may approach and collide. In such a case, the vehicular lighting device 10 according to the present embodiment emits light for drawing an irradiation pattern, and prompts the pedestrian 30 and the driver of the host vehicle 20 to call attention.

  Specifically, the object pattern 50 is irradiated near the front feet of the pedestrian 30. On the other hand, the driver's pattern 60 is irradiated to the front area of the host vehicle 20. That is, the object pattern 50 and the driver pattern 60 are irradiated to different positions. Thereby, the pedestrian 30 can visually recognize the pattern 50 for objects reliably. Also, the driver of the host vehicle 20 can surely see the driver pattern 60. The position where the object pattern 50 in FIG. 4 is irradiated is a specific example of “first position”, and the position where the driver pattern 60 is irradiated is “second position”. Is a specific example.

  Incidentally, when the distance between the host vehicle 20 and the pedestrian 30 is large, the object pattern 50 and the driver pattern 60 may be limited to the minimum drawing size and brightness that can be seen from each viewpoint. . In this way, the driver pattern 60 cannot be seen from the pedestrian 30, and the pedestrian pattern 50 cannot be seen from the driver of the host vehicle 20. Therefore, it is possible to make the object pattern 50 and the driver pattern 60 visible only to the object to be presented.

  In this case, even when the drawing size and the brightness are limited, the irradiation may be stopped when approaching a distance that can be viewed from each viewpoint. Moreover, when the pedestrian 30 and the driver of the host vehicle 20 approach to a distance where the presence of the pedestrian 30 and the driver of the host vehicle 20 can be surely recognized, the irradiation may be similarly stopped.

<Effect of embodiment>
Finally, beneficial technical effects obtained by the vehicle lighting device 10 according to the present embodiment will be described.

  As described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4, according to the vehicular illumination device 10 according to the present embodiment, the object pattern 50 for calling attention to the object and the driving of the host vehicle 20. A pedestrian pattern 60 for alerting a person is irradiated at different positions. Therefore, it is possible to appropriately alert the object and the driver of the host vehicle 20.

  The object pattern 50 and the pedestrian pattern 60 may be irradiated at the same time, or may be irradiated at different times. That is, if two types of irradiation patterns for an object and a driver are irradiated in different positions, the present invention is applicable regardless of whether or not they are irradiated at the same time.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be appropriately changed without departing from the gist or concept of the invention that can be read from the claims and the entire specification. The apparatus is also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Vehicle lighting device 20 Own vehicle 30 Pedestrian 50 Object irradiation pattern 60 Driver irradiation pattern 110 In-vehicle camera 120 Radar 130 Communication device 200 ECU
210 Ambient environment information acquisition unit 220 Irradiation target determination unit 230 Irradiation information generation unit 300 Irradiation unit

Claims (1)

Detecting means for detecting the position and moving direction of an object existing around the own vehicle;
Determination means for determining whether or not the object is an object to be alerted based on the position and moving direction of the object;
(I) irradiating the first position visible from the object with light for alerting the object; and (ii) visible from the driver of the host vehicle; and An illuminating device for irradiating light for alerting a driver of the host vehicle at a second position different from the first position.