WO2014123453A1

WO2014123453A1 - Method for protecting the eyes of a driver from being blinded by the headlights of an oncoming vehicle

Info

Publication number: WO2014123453A1
Application number: PCT/RU2014/000027
Authority: WO
Inventors: Анатолий Арьевич ЛЕВИН
Original assignee: ЛЕВИН, Александр Арьевич
Priority date: 2013-02-06
Filing date: 2014-01-17
Publication date: 2014-08-14
Also published as: RU2541035C2; RU2013104655A

Abstract

The proposed technical solution relates to the field of protecting eyes from being blinded by oncoming light and can be used in vehicles for protecting the eyes of drivers from being blinded by the headlights of oncoming vehicles as well as by the sun, by bright street lamps and by other sources of blinding (including lasers). The technical result of the claimed invention consists in a significant increase in the effectiveness of protection against being blinded by oncoming light. Said technical result is achieved by means of a method for protecting the eyes of a driver from being blinded by the headlights of an oncoming vehicle, which is characterized by the use of: a transparent display on which darkened areas are formed corresponding to the light from the headlights of an oncoming vehicle, and a digital camera; and by the determination of the coordinates at which the straight lines connecting the center of the eye with each source of blinding intersect the plane of the display, wherein the camera is affixed to the head of driver and the display is positioned on the head of the driver in front of his eyes - between the eyes and the sources of blinding light.

Description

METHOD FOR PROTECTING THE EYES OF A DRIVER WHEN BLINDING THE HEADLIGHT VEHICLES WITH LIGHT

DESCRIPTION

The proposed technical solution relates to the field of protection of eyes from blinding by oncoming light and can be used in vehicles to protect the eyes of drivers from blinding by headlights of oncoming vehicles, as well as from the sun, bright street lamps and other sources of blinding (including laser blinding).

The solution of patent RU2444345 is known from the prior art, where protection is achieved by “changing the transmission of part of the glasses of glasses in the area of probable passage of light paths of the headlights to the left of the axis of view”. This zone is fixed, it is determined in advance by the manufacturer of the glasses. Thus, not only the source of glare is obscured, but also other objects that fall into this zone, which in some situations may not increase, but reduce security. In addition, glare sources that do not fall into this zone, such as streetlights and the sun, are not obscured. The difference between the claimed solution is that it obscures those (in total - significantly smaller) areas of the transparent display that correspond to the actual current positions of the glare sources. That is: a) excess portions of the transparent display are not obscured, b) darkening is possible anywhere in the transparent display, and not just in a pre-allocated area, which protects both the sun and bright street lights, etc.

A patent for invention RU2274439 is known, according to which “dimming translucent screens are applied to the left halves of the windows from the oncoming transport side”. The solution has the same drawbacks as in the previous case, and the dimming zone: a) even more - half the glass, b) acts constantly, and does not become dark only when blinded, which further reduces safety.

An additional drawback - the driver must make some movements head.

A patent for utility model RU92789U is known - a system for protecting the driver’s eyes when the headlights of an oncoming vehicle are blinded by light, comprising a screen, a camera, a device that determines the coordinates of the intersection of the optical axis of the eye with the screen, a control unit based on a software and hardware complex configured to periodically reading the coordinates of the position of the driver’s eyes from the sensor to determine the coordinates of the position of each human eye relative to the screen, characterized in that the screen is made in the form of tint matrix or partially transparent protective low-resolution polymer liquid crystal screen mounted on the windshield of the car or between the windshield and the driver, the function of which is the dimming in proportion to the headlights of the oncoming vehicle in that part of the screen that is necessary to protect the eyes of the driver of the vehicle means from blinding the headlights of the oncoming vehicle with light, and the control unit is configured to periodically read images that headlight oncoming

vehicle with camera.

Compared with this analogue, the proposed system is simpler, cheaper and more reliable, because it does not contain either “a device for determining the coordinates of the position of each human eye relative to the screen”, nor a “sensor for determining the coordinates of the position of each human eye relative to the screen”, nor "A device that determines the coordinates of the intersection of the optical axis of the eye with the screen." These devices become unnecessary because in the proposed system a transparent display

fixed on the driver’s head, i.e. the position of the display relative to each eye remains unchanged and can be taken into account once when setting up the system.

The closest solution is patent J P6225905. To compare with it, we first note that there are two possible ways of protecting (the driver) from blinding with the help of LCD displays fixed on the head (in particular, built-in glasses):

1) use ordinary LCD displays that are not transparent (or slightly transparent), known from the bo-x-70s of the last century, and display a positive (normal) image on them. In this case, the driver does not see the real situation, but its image on the display. In case of any accidental displacement of the glasses relative to their initial position, the driver will perceive a distorted situation. The negative, even catastrophic, consequences of this are obvious.

2) use transparent (transparent) LCD displays that have appeared in the most recent years (serial production of Samsung since April 2011) and display the maximum contrast negative image on them (with an adjustable white-black threshold), due to which glare sources on the display turn into dark spots, and the rest of the display surface (background) remains transparent. In this case, the driver sees through the transparent display the real situation, and not her

picture. In case of accidental displacement of glasses on the head, protection from glare may be impaired, but the driver will still see the real situation, and not its shifted image. Thus, this method is free from the disadvantage of the first method.

In the considered patent JP6225905 in the materials of the invention it is not said anywhere that the LCD panels (essentially displays) are transparent. In addition, in section (0014) it is said: “You can also use image pickup devices 6a and 6b to work in color, as well as LCD panels 4a and 4b” (that is, video cameras and LCD panels can be color). Based on this, it can be assumed that an image is displayed on the LCD panel, and a transparent background is not created, i.e. the first of

the considered methods.

In our solution, we propose a second method based on

using transparent displays. In addition, it is proposed to use not two cameras, as in the prototype, but one, which is obviously cheaper.

The technical result of the claimed invention is to significantly increase the effectiveness of protection against dazzle by oncoming light.

The specified technical result is achieved due to the fact that the method of protecting the driver’s eyes when the headlights of the oncoming vehicle are blinded by light,

characterized by the use of: a transparent display on which dimming portions proportional to the light of the headlights of the oncoming vehicle are formed; digital camera; the determination of the coordinates of the intersection with the display plane of the lines connecting the center of the eye with each blinding source, characterized in that the camera is mounted on the driver’s head, and the display is placed on the driver’s head in front of his eyes - between them and the sources of blinding light.

Preferably, the maximum contrast is displayed on a transparent display.

negative image read from the camera and including images of glare sources.

It is preferable that an image read from the camera and passed through a threshold driver with brightness inversion is displayed on a transparent display, the threshold being set by the user.

Preferably, the degree of transparency of the dimming areas is set by the user. It is preferable that the threshold and the degree of dimming are performed in one of three modes at the user's choice: manual, automatic, or combined.

The invention can be implemented as follows.

A system is formed consisting of the elements: a transparent display, a digital photo or video camera, a control unit made on the basis of a microprocessor or microcontroller (a display and a video camera are connected to the control unit). The control unit can be structurally and constructively combined with a microprocessor (microcontroller), which is part of the camera and controls its operation.

In this system, it is supposed to fix both a transparent display and a camera on the driver’s head. The display is similar in size and weight to cell displays

phones, cameras, navigators, DVRs, etc. Fixing the display can be achieved by constructively making it either in the form of glasses, or in the form of a nozzle on glasses, or in the form of a common display for both eyes, mounted on a helmet or other headgear (for example, on a visor of a baseball cap), or similarly to a medical mirror. Accordingly, the camera, in size and

characteristics similar to cameras used in the same devices can be mounted either on the spectacle frame or on the headgear on which the display is fixed either on the display itself or on a hoop worn on the head if the display is made similar to a medical mirror.

It seems appropriate to integrate the proposed system (as an additional function) into “smart glasses” or “augmented reality glasses” created, for example, by Google, Microsoft, Olympus, Oakley, because these multifunctional devices already contain a transparent display (all) and a camera (Google and Microsoft glasses).

The operation of the proposed system is illustrated in figure 1 (for the display in the form of glasses or nozzles on the glasses, the display consists of two identical parts), figure 2 (for

execution of the display in the form of a common screen in both eyes).

The basis of the system is a transparent display 1. It has the following property: light (white, if the display is color) fragments of the display

images whose brightness exceeds a certain threshold turn into transparent ones. A transparent display is fixed on the driver’s head in front of his eyes 4, i.e. between them and blinding light sources 5. The control unit 3 periodically (with a frequency of the order of 30 Hz or more) reads from the camera 2, also mounted on the driver’s head, images of the blinding sources 5 and forms dark areas (spots) on the transparent display 1 just in those places where they obscure themselves blinding sources 5. Corresponding to each blinding source 5, the control unit 3 forms two dark spots b — one for each eye 4. In this case, the rest of the display remains transparent.

The proposed system sets and, if necessary, adjusts the protection threshold, i.e. the value of the relative brightness (for the original image perceived by the camera), above which the brightness is considered dazzling and requires protection.

The essence of forming a “picture” displayed on a transparent display is as follows: the maximum contrast negative image read from the camera is displayed on a transparent display; in other words: an image read from the camera and passed through a threshold driver with brightness inversion is displayed on a transparent display (the threshold driver is a hardware or software part of the control unit). In other words, each pixel of the image displayed on the display is formed according to the following logic: if the brightness of the pixel of the original image read from the camera is lower than the protection threshold, then the corresponding pixel on the display is formed as bright as possible, and therefore (according to the specified property of the transparent display) - how transparent; if the brightness of the pixel of the original image read from the camera is higher than the protection threshold, then the corresponding pixel on the display is formed as dark as possible, and therefore opaque.

Thus, dark spots b correspond to each blinding source 5 on the display, and the rest of the display remains transparent.

Thanks to such simple logic, the translation of the image read from the camera into the image displayed on the display can be implemented by the control unit without any noticeable delay.

The distance from the eyes 4 to camera 2 (tens of millimeters) is significantly less than the distances from the eyes 4 and camera 2 to the sources of blinding 5 (tens and hundreds of meters). Therefore, the eyes 4 and the camera 2 read almost the same “picture” in terms of the location of the blinding sources 5. When the blinding sources 5 are moved relative to the “eye - camera - transparent display” system (due to the movement of their vehicle and / or oncoming) the control unit 3 moves dark spots on the transparent display 1 in the same way as the images of blinding sources 5 are moved in the “picture” read by camera 2. But, as indicated above, this

The “picture” practically coincides with the “picture” perceived by the eyes 4. As a result, each eye 4 is still blocked from the moving source of blinding 5 by the dark spot 6 that has moved on the display 1.

Due to the rigid fixation of the display 1 and camera 2 on the driver’s head, the case of turning or displacing the head is equivalent (for the system “eyes - camera - transparent display”) to the case of moving sources of blinding 5,

discussed above. Thus, in the case of head movement, the eyes of the driver 4 remain protected from sources of blinding 5.

Since this system essentially dims 6 bright light sources 5, which at night or during fog show the driver about approaching oncoming car, the driver's awareness of the approaching car, its size and distance is reduced. To eliminate this drawback, it is proposed that the dimming of the sources of blinding 5 be made not complete, but partial, so that the sources of blinding 5 observed by the driver through a transparent display 1 turn not into completely black, but into gray spots b (against a general transparent background). The light passing through them from the sources of blinding will make them bright, but not dazzling.

The degree of transparency of the dimming areas (hereinafter - the degree of dimming), i.e. the black level of protective dark spots b (black level) in the proposed system is set and, if necessary, adjusted.

Seeing light spots (but not blinding!) On the spot of glare sources, the driver does not lose information about approaching vehicles.

To set and adjust the protection threshold and the degree of dimming, the proposed system has three modes: manual, automatic and mixed (combined). In manual mode, both parameters are set by the user in accordance with traffic conditions, general illumination, time of day, season, weather conditions, peculiarities of his vision, etc. In automatic mode, these functions are performed by control unit 3. In mixed mode, both parameters are also set automatically by the unit control 3, but can be further adjusted by the user based on his individual characteristics.

Claims

FORMULA

1. A way to protect the driver’s eyes when blinded by the headlights of the oncoming

a vehicle characterized by the use of: a transparent display on which dimming portions proportional to the light of the headlights of an oncoming vehicle are formed; digital camera; the determination of the coordinates of the intersection with the display plane of the lines connecting the center of the eye with each blinding source, characterized in that the camera is mounted on the driver’s head, and the display is placed on the driver’s head in front of his eyes - between them and the sources of blinding light.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the transparent display

maximum contrast negative image read from the camera and including images of glare sources.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the transparent display

an image read from the camera and passed through a threshold driver with brightness inversion, and the user sets the threshold value.

4. The method according to claim 2 or claim 3, characterized in that the degree of transparency of the dimming areas is set by the user.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the threshold and the degree of dimming are performed in one of three modes at the user's choice: manual, automatic, or combined.