TWI808831B - Lighting device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

A lighting device for vehicle comprises a light emitting module, an image capture module and a control module connected to the light emitting module and the image capture module. The light emitting module includes a plurality of light emitting units. Each light emitting unit is provided with a lens section, an adjustment section and a light source section. The adjustment section is connected with the lens section and the light source section for regulating a distance between the lens section and the light source section, so as to control the light type output from the light source section. The image capture module is used to capture images in front of the vehicle and transmits a displaying image. The displaying image is divided into a plurality of blocks, each block corresponding to one light emitting unit. The control module is connected with the image capture module, the adjustment section and the light source section. The control module identifies at least one external object from the displaying image and determines the blocks where the external object is positioned. Then, the control module controls the adjustment section to regulate the light emitting units corresponding to the blocks where the external object is positioned, and thereby the light type output from the light source section is adjusted.

Description

Vehicle Lighting Device

The invention relates to a vehicle lighting device, in particular to a vehicle light which can automatically adjust the front lighting according to the road conditions ahead.

In recent years, people's requirements for car safety have been increasing, which has also led to various car manufacturers actively developing driver assistance systems, such as automatic braking, automatic car following, lane maintenance, and blind spot warning...etc., but little attention has been paid to the control of car lights. The traditional car light design has only one direction, the light can only be projected directly in front of the vehicle, and the brightness of the headlights cannot be controlled by itself. Imagine that if you are driving on a rolling mountain road, what you need to drive is to see the road information after turning.

Therefore, at present, the industry has developed an active headlight steering system, which adjusts the direction of the headlights according to the direction of the steering wheel, so as to make up for some blind spots when turning. Although the active headlight steering system solves some blind spots when turning, it still cannot adjust the light (light pattern) distribution of the headlights according to the actual road conditions (such as oncoming vehicles) and road conditions to improve driving safety.

One object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle lighting device that can automatically adjust the light pattern of vehicle lighting to achieve the ability of self-adaptive front lighting, thereby achieving driving safety.

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a lighting device for a vehicle, comprising a light emitting module, an image capturing module and a control module. The light emitting module includes a plurality of light emitting units. Each light emitting unit is provided with a lens part, an adjustment part and a light source part. Each block corresponds to the plurality of light emitting units. The control module is connected to the image capture module, the adjusting part and the light source part. The control module recognizes at least one external object located in these blocks according to the image screen, so as to control the adjustment parts of the light emitting units corresponding to the blocks to operate, and then automatically adjust the light pattern output by the light source parts of the light emitting units. Through the design of the vehicle lighting device of the present invention, the light pattern of the vehicle lighting can be automatically adjusted to achieve the ability of self-adaptive front lighting, so as to achieve driving safety.

1: Vehicle lighting device

11: Lighting module

111: Lighting unit

112: Lens department

113: Adjustment department

1131: Coil

1132: Magnetic parts

1133: frame body

1134: Move the guide rod

1135: move block

114: Light source department

115: Spacing

116: reflective part

13: Image capture module

131: video screen

132:External object

133: block

14: Control module

15: Radar module

161: Flood light type

162: spot light type

17: lamp housing

Fig. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of a vehicle lighting device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a schematic diagram of an image frame of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3B is a schematic diagram of the blocks corresponding to the output light sources of the light-emitting units in an external object according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4A is an exploded perspective view of a light emitting unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4B is a schematic diagram of an implementation of the adjusting part of the light emitting unit driving the moving block to move forward to adjust the light pattern according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4C is a schematic diagram of an implementation of a light-emitting unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which the adjustment part of the light-emitting unit drives the moving block to move backward to adjust the light pattern.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of an implementation of a vehicle lighting device installed on a vehicle to output light according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a three-dimensional schematic diagram of a vehicle lighting device in an alternative embodiment of the present invention.

The above-mentioned purpose of the present invention and its structural and functional characteristics will be described based on the preferred embodiments of the accompanying drawings.

The present invention provides a lighting device for a vehicle, which is installed on a vehicle (such as a car or a locomotive). Referring to Figures 1, 2, 3A, 3B, and 4A, the lighting device 1 for a vehicle is used as a headlight for a vehicle (such as a car) in this embodiment, but it is not limited thereto. The vehicle lighting device 1 includes a light emitting module 11, an image capturing module 13, a control module 14 and a light housing 17. The light emitting module 11, the image capturing module 13 and the control module 14 are arranged on the light housing 17, and the image capturing module 13 is located above the light housing 17, and the light emitting module 11 is located below the image capturing module 13. The light-emitting module 11 includes a plurality of light-emitting units 111 . In this embodiment, the plurality of light-emitting units 111 are arranged in a rectangular array to form the light-emitting module 11 . In some other embodiments, the plurality of light emitting units 111 can be in any one of a honeycomb array, a triangular array, a polygonal array, a circular array or an irregular array to form the light emitting module 11 .

Each light emitting unit 111 is provided with a lens portion 112, an adjustment portion 113, a light source portion 114 and a reflective portion 116 covering the periphery of the light source portion 114. The lens portion 112 is a lens made of heat-resistant and UV-resistant materials. The light source portion 114 is a light-emitting diode (LED). In actual implementation, it can also be selected as a halogen lamp, a high-intensity gas discharge lamp or an incandescent lamp. The reflective part 116 is a semi-transparent or opaque reflective member that can concentrate the light emitted by the light source part 114 and reflect it toward the corresponding lens part 112 to reduce unnecessary divergence of light, thereby increasing the effect of lighting brightness. A distance 115 between the light source parts 114 further adjusts the light type output by the light source parts 114 , wherein the light type is a flood light type 161 or a spot light type 162 .

In this embodiment, the adjustment part 113 includes a coil 1131, a magnetic member 1132 (such as a magnet) and a frame body 1133. The frame body 1133 has a moving guide rod 1134 and a moving block 1135. One end of the moving guide rod 1134 (two moving guide rods 1134 as shown in this figure) is fixed on the bottom side of the frame body 1133, and the light source part 114 and the reflective part 116 are respectively arranged on the frame body. 1133 and between the two moving guide rods 1134 , the lens part 112 is connected to the moving block 1135 and corresponds to the light source part 114 and the light reflecting part 116 arranged on the bottom side of the frame body 1133 . The moving block 1135 is pivoted with the moving guide rod 1134, and can move forward and backward on the moving guide rod 1134. A return spring (such as a leaf spring; not shown) is further provided between one side (such as the rear side) of the moving block 1135 and the bottom side of the frame body 1133.

The coil 1131 is arranged on the outside of the frame body 1133, and is excited with the magnetic piece 1132 correspondingly arranged on the rear side of the moving block 1135, so when the coil 1131 is energized, the electric field interacts with the magnetic field corresponding to the magnetic piece 1132 to generate a forward pushing force, so that the moving block 1135, together with the magnetic piece 1132 and the lens portion 112, move forward along the moving guide rod 1134 (as shown in Figure 4B), thereby changing The distance 115 between the lens part 112 and the light source part 114 is increased, so that the output (projected) light pattern of the light source part 114 is a concentrated light pattern 162 (as shown in FIG. 5 ). When the coil 1131 is not energized, the moving block 1135, the magnetic member 1132 and the lens portion 112 are pulled back along the moving guide rod 1134 by the return spring to return to the original position (as shown in FIG.

In actual implementation, the adjustment part 113 is not limited to the above-mentioned components. Any movement adjustment mechanism that can drive the lens part 112 or the light source part 114 to change, increase or shorten the distance 115 between the lens part 112 and the light source part 114 is called the adjustment part 113 in the present invention. For example, the adjustment part 113 is a The motor is composed of a moving rod engaged with the motor. The motor is driven through the control module 14 such as forward rotation or reverse rotation to drive the moving rod to move the connected lens part 112 (or light source part 114) forward or backward to adjust and change the distance 115 between the lens part 112 and the light source part 114. In a feasible embodiment, the moving guide rod 1134 can be omitted, and a groove (not shown) is provided on the two opposite inner sides of the frame body 1133, and the two sides of the moving block 1135 are fitted in the two grooves corresponding to the frame body 1133, so that the moving block 1135 can slide in the groove of the frame body 1133 and be driven forward or backward. In yet another implementation, the regulating unit 113 is a voice coil motor (Voice Coil Motor, VCM).

The image capture module 13 is a photographic lens (such as a CCD photographic lens or a CMOS photographic lens) to capture images in front of the vehicle to output an image frame 131 to the control module 14. The image frame 131 includes at least one external object 132. The external object 132 is a pedestrian or a vehicle (such as a car or a locomotive) in this embodiment, but it is not limited thereto. In actual implementation, the external object 132 can also be an obstacle. The image frame 131 is divided into a plurality of blocks 133, for example, the vertical direction is cut into 20 rows (the straight ones are rows), the horizontal square image is cut into 5 columns (the horizontal ones are columns), and a total of 20×5 blocks 133 (as shown in Figure 3) are cut into, and each block 133 is matched with each light emitting unit 111. In this embodiment, the plurality of light emitting units 111 are arranged in the same arrangement as the corresponding plurality of blocks 133 in 20 rows×5 columns, but it is not limited thereto. . During actual implementation, the user can adjust the number of the light emitting units 111 according to the requirements of the lighting width and lighting brightness, and match with the number of the divided blocks 133 on the image frame 131 .

The control module 14 is a central processing unit (CPU) or a microcontroller (MCU). The control module 14 is electrically connected to the image capture module 13 and the adjustment part 113 and the light source part 114 of the plurality of light emitting units 111, and the control module 14 can independently control the operation of the adjustment part 113 of each light emitting unit 111 and adjust the brightness of the light source part 114. The control module 14 recognizes at least one external object 132 based on the image frame 131. The blocks 133 are used to control the adjustment part 113 of the light-emitting units 111 corresponding to the blocks 133 to act (As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B ), the light patterns output by the light source parts 114 of the light emitting units 111 are further automatically adjusted. For example, the control module 14 recognizes that the external object 132 in the center is the front vehicle (the opposite vehicle) according to the image frame 131, and also recognizes the brightness distribution of the external object 132 on the blocks 133. If the brightness of the blocks 133 on the external object 132 is recognized to be brighter (as shown in the white block 133 in FIG. 3A), the control module 14 independently controls the light-emitting units 111 corresponding to the blocks 133 (as shown in FIG. The adjusting part 113 of the black light-emitting unit 111) moves the lens part 112 on the moving block 1135 to the original position (as shown in Fig. 4C) toward the direction of the light source part 114, so that the light source parts 114 corresponding to the blocks 133 output such as flood light pattern 161 (as shown in Fig. 5).

At the same time, the control module 14 recognizes the external object 132 on the left as an obstacle and there is no external object 132 on the right according to the image frame 131, and recognizes that the brightness of the remaining blocks 133 on the left and right sides of the image frame 131 is relatively dark (as shown in the black and gray blocks 133 in FIG. 3A, and the black block 133 is darker than the gray block 133). The light sources 114 of the other light-emitting units 111 (such as the light-emitting units 111 on the left and right) output such as the spotlight type 162 (as shown in FIG. 5 ), so that when all the light-emitting units 111 continue to output light sources during driving, they will actively adjust the light type (such as the flood light type 161 or the spotlight type 162 ) that only corresponds to the external object 132 according to the position of the external object 132 in the road ahead, so that the vehicle in front will not be dazzled, so as to effectively improve driving performance. car security.

In another embodiment, the control module 14 may omit not identifying the brightness distribution of the blocks 133 where the external object 132 is located, but directly recognizes the external object 132 as the vehicle in front according to the image frame 131, and directly and independently controls the adjustment part 113 of the light emitting unit 111 corresponding to the blocks 133, so that the light source parts 114 output a flood light pattern 161 (as shown in FIG. 5 ).

In an alternative embodiment, referring to FIG. 6, the vehicle lighting device 1 further includes a radar module 15, the radar module 15 is arranged on the lamp housing 17, and is located above the light emitting module adjacent to the image capture module 13, and The radar module 15 is connected to the control module 14 . The radar module 15 is a millimeter microwave radar or an optical radar or a combination of the two. The radar module 15 is used to detect the vehicle conditions ahead, so as to transmit a detection signal (such as a millimeter microwave signal) to the control module 14, so that the control module 14 can learn the distance and speed of an external object 132 (such as a vehicle or obstacle in front) farther ahead according to the detection signal, so as to assist the photographic image capture module 13 in identifying the road conditions ahead (such as an external object 132 in front), so as to enhance the photographic image. The capture module 13 identifies the effects of breadth and precision.

Although the lens part 112 is connected to the moving block 1135 of the adjusting part 113 in this embodiment, the moving block 135 drives the lens part 112 to move forward or backward to adjust the output light pattern. But not limited to this, in another alternative embodiment, the light source part 114 is connected to the moving block 135 arranged on the adjusting part 113, and the lens part 112 is fixedly arranged at the front position corresponding to the light source part 114 and the reflective part 116, and the light source part 114 on it is moved forward or backward through the moving block 135 to adjust the output light pattern.

Therefore, through the design of the vehicle lighting device 1 of the present invention, it is possible to automatically adjust the light pattern of the vehicle lighting, so that the vehicle lights can project a better effect of self-adaptive front lighting, so as to achieve driving safety. In addition, the vehicle lighting device 1 of the present invention can be used and installed independently without being activated with the driving assistance system on the vehicle, so the present invention can be adapted to various vehicles (such as automobiles or locomotives) to achieve high flexibility of use.

1: Vehicle lighting device

11: Lighting module

111: Lighting unit

112: Lens department

113: Adjustment department

114: Light source department

13: Image capture module

14: Control module

Claims (8)

A lighting device for a vehicle, comprising: a light-emitting module, including a plurality of light-emitting units, each light-emitting unit is provided with a lens unit, an adjustment unit and a light source unit, the adjustment unit is located between the lens unit and the light source unit, and is selectively connected to the lens unit or the light source unit, the adjustment unit is used to adjust a distance between the lens unit and the light source unit, and then adjusts the light pattern output by the light source unit; A light-emitting unit; and a control module, which is connected to the image capture module, the adjustment part and the light source part. The control module recognizes at least one external object located in the blocks according to the image screen, so as to control the adjustment part of the light-emitting units corresponding to the blocks to actuate, and then automatically adjust the light pattern output by the light source part of the light-emitting units. The vehicle lighting device as described in item 1 of the scope of the patent application, wherein the plurality of light-emitting units are arranged in an array to form the light-emitting module, and the adjusting part is connected to the lens part. The lighting device for a vehicle as described in claim 1 of the patent application, wherein the light source part is a light-emitting diode, a halogen lamp, a high-intensity gas discharge lamp or an incandescent lamp, and the lens part is a lens. The vehicle lighting device described in item 1 of the scope of the patent application further includes a radar module connected to the control module. The vehicle lighting device as described in item 4 of the scope of the patent application, wherein the radar module is a millimeter microwave radar or an optical radar or a combination of both. The vehicle lighting device described in claim 1 of the patent application, wherein the light type is a flood light type or a spot light type. The vehicle lighting device described in item 1 of the scope of the patent application further includes a lamp housing, and the light emitting module, the image capture module and the control module are arranged on the lamp housing. The vehicle lighting device as described in item 1 of the scope of the patent application, wherein the image capture module is a camera lens, and the control module is a central processing unit or a microcontroller.