Vehicle, information processing apparatus, and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12087089-B2
Application number	US-202117322192-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 17, 2021
Priority date	May 18, 2020
Publication date	Sep 10, 2024
Grant date	Sep 10, 2024

Abstract

There is provided a vehicle including: a plurality of dimming glass units used for a plurality of windows; a sensor that acquires an entering situation of natural light at a predetermined position; and a controller. The controller performs: specifying a first dimming glass unit that is a control target out of the plurality of dimming glass units in accordance with the entering situation of natural light; and controlling a light shielding property of the first dimming glass unit. The controller controls the first dimming glass unit so as to be into a light shielding state when the entering situation of natural light satisfies a first condition indicating that an occupant in the vehicle feels glaringness, and releases the light shielding state of the first dimming glass unit when the entering situation of natural light satisfies a second condition indicating that the occupant in the vehicle does not feel glaringness.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle comprising:
a plurality of dimming glass units used for a plurality of windows;
a sensor configured to acquire an entering situation of natural light at a predetermined position; and
a controller configured to:
specify a first dimming glass unit that is a control target out of the plurality of dimming glass units in accordance with the entering situation of the natural light; and
control quantity of transmitted light of the first dimming glass unit; wherein
the controller is configured to control the first dimming glass unit so as to be in a light shielding state in a case where the entering situation of the natural light satisfies a first condition indicating a degree of glaringness in the vehicle, wherein
the sensor is an image capturing apparatus that captures an image of an interior of the vehicle including the plurality of dimming glass units, and
the controller is configured to:
analyze a captured image of the image capturing apparatus;
as the first condition, determine whether a region of a luminance equal to or higher than a predetermined value, the region including a predetermined area or more, is detected from the captured image; and
specify a dimming glass unit that natural light enters out of the plurality of dimming glass units included in the captured image as the first dimming glass unit in response to a result of an analysis of the captured image in a case where the region satisfying the first condition is detected from the captured image.

2. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to perform control to release the light shielding state of the first dimming glass unit when the entering situation of the natural light satisfies a second condition indicating a degree of glaringness in the vehicle.

3. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to control the quantity of transmitted light of the first dimming glass unit by controlling a rate of transmission of the first dimming glass unit.

4. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the sensor includes a plurality of illuminometers provided in association with the plurality of respective dimming glass units, and
when it is satisfied, as the first condition, that a sensing value of at least one of the plurality of illuminometers is larger than a first threshold, the controller specifies a dimming glass unit corresponding to the at least one illuminometer as the first dimming glass unit.

5. The vehicle according to claim 2 , wherein
the sensor includes a plurality of illuminometers provided in association with the plurality of respective dimming glass units, and
when it is satisfied, as the second condition, that a sensing value of at least one of the plurality of illuminometers is smaller than a second threshold equal to or less than a first threshold, the controller is configured to specify a dimming glass unit corresponding to the at least one illuminometer as the first dimming glass unit.

6. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein when it is further satisfied, as the first condition, that at least any of an expression or an action of the occupant feeling glaringness in the vehicle is detected from the captured image of the image capturing apparatus, the controller is configured to specify a dimming glass unit that natural light enters out of the plurality of dimming glass units included in the captured image as the first dimming glass unit.

7. The vehicle according to claim 2 , wherein
the sensor is an image capturing apparatus that captures an image of an interior of the vehicle, and
when it is satisfied, as the second condition, that a region having a luminance equal to or more than a predetermined value is not detected from the captured image of the image capturing apparatus, the controller is configured to specify at least part of the plurality of dimming glass units out of the plurality of dimming glass units included in the captured image as the first dimming glass unit.

8. The vehicle according to claim 7 , wherein when it is satisfied, as the second condition, that neither an expression nor an action of the occupant feeling glaringness in the vehicle is detected from the captured image of the image capturing apparatus, the controller is configured to specify at least part of the plurality of dimming glass units out of the plurality of dimming glass units included in the captured image as the first dimming glass unit.

9. An information processing apparatus mounted on a vehicle, comprising a controller configured to:
specify a first dimming glass unit that is a control target out of a plurality of dimming glass units used for a plurality of windows of the vehicle in accordance with an entering situation of natural light at a predetermined position in the vehicle, the entering situation acquired by a sensor; and
control quantity of transmitted light of the first dimming glass unit; wherein
the controller is configured to control the first dimming glass unit so as to be in a light shielding state in a case where the entering situation of the natural light satisfies a first condition indicating a degree of glaringness in the vehicle, wherein
the sensor is an image capturing apparatus that captures an image of an interior of the vehicle including the plurality of dimming glass units, and
the controller is configured to:
analyze a captured image of the image capturing apparatus;
as the first condition, determine whether a region of a luminance equal to or higher than a predetermined value, the region including a predetermined area or more, is detected from the captured image; and
specify a dimming glass unit that natural light enters out of the plurality of dimming glass units included in the captured image as the first dimming glass unit in response to a result of an analysis of the captured image in a case where the region satisfying the first condition is detected from the captured image.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the controller is configured to perform control to release the light shielding state of the first dimming glass unit when the entering situation of the natural light satisfies a second condition indicating a degree of glaringness in the vehicle.

11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein
the sensor includes a plurality of illuminometers provided in association with the plurality of respective dimming glass units, and
when it is satisfied, as the first condition, that a sensing value of at least one of the plurality of illuminometers is larger than a first threshold, the controller is configured to specify a dimming glass unit corresponding to the at least one illuminometer as the first dimming glass unit.

12. The information processing apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein
the sensor includes a plurality of illuminometers provided in association with the plurality of respective dimming glass units, and
when it is satisfied, as the second condition, that a sensing value of at least one of the plurality of illuminometers is smaller than a second threshold equal to or less than a first threshold, the controller is configured to specify a dimming glass unit corresponding to the at least one illuminometer as the first dimming glass unit.

13. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein when it is further satisfied, as the first condition, that at least any of an expression or an action of the occupant feeling glaringness in the vehicle is detected from the captured image of the image capturing apparatus, the controller is configured to specify a dimming gl

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Takezawa Yoshiyasu
• Todaka Hirotaka
• Kiguchi Takao
• Sawada Chieko
• Tokuda Yosuke
• Kagami Ayaka
• Sugiyama Natsuki
• Hirano Takuzo
• Amakasu Taichi
• HIBINO Seiei
• Kawakami Hiroshi

Classifications

• G06V40/20

  Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition (recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16) · CPC title

• G06V20/59

  inside of a vehicle, e.g. relating to seat occupancy, driver state or inner lighting conditions · CPC title

• G06V10/60

  relating to illumination properties, e.g. using a reflectance or lighting model · CPC title

• B60J1/17

  vertically · CPC title

• B60J3/04 Primary

  adjustable in transparency · CPC title