Anti-glare apparatus and mirror having lens assembly with controlled optical axis direction

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12169348-B2
Application number	US-202318498572-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2023
Priority date	Jan 2, 2019
Publication date	Dec 17, 2024
Grant date	Dec 17, 2024

Abstract

An anti-glare apparatus includes a lens assembly having an incident side, the lens assembly including a layer of liquid crystal molecules, a first driving electrode and a second driving electrode respectively on both sides of the layer of the liquid crystal molecules, the first driving electrode or the second driving electrode including a plurality of sub-electrodes; a reflective layer on a side of the lens assembly opposite from the incident side; a camera, configured to acquire a human eye's position and acquire an intensity signal of incident light irradiating the incident side of the lens assembly; and a controller electrically connected to the first driving electrode, the second driving electrode, and the camera; where the controller is configured to adjust driving voltages of the sub-electrode based on the intensity signal of the incident light acquire by the camera to change the optical axis direction of the lens assembly.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An anti-glare apparatus, comprising:
a lens assembly having an incident side, the lens assembly comprising a layer of liquid crystal molecules, a first driving electrode and a second driving electrode respectively on both sides of the layer of the liquid crystal molecules, at least one of the first driving electrode or the second driving electrode comprising a plurality of sub-electrodes;
a reflective layer on a side of the lens assembly opposite from the incident side;
a camera, configured to acquire a human eye's position and acquire an intensity signal of an incident light irradiating the incident side of the lens assembly; and
a controller electrically connected to the first driving electrode, the second driving electrode, and the camera;
wherein the controller is configured to adjust the driving voltage of at least one of the sub-electrodes based on the intensity signal of the incident light acquire by the camera to change the optical axis direction of the lens assembly;
wherein the controller is configured to determine whether the intensity signal of the incident light is greater than a threshold value;
the controller adjusts the driving voltage of the at least one of the sub-electrodes to change the optical axis direction of the lens assembly in response that the intensity signal of the incident light is greater than the threshold value, and
the controller controls driving voltages of the plurality of sub-electrodes to remain unchanged in response that the intensity signal of the incident light is not greater than the threshold value;
wherein
the controller is further configured to control whether to change the optical axis direction of the lens assembly based on a combination of the intensity signal of the incident light and the human eye's position;
wherein
the controller is configured to determine whether the light intensity signal of the lens assembly is greater than the threshold value and whether the human eye's position is in a path of a reflected light of the incident light by the reflective layer;
the controller adjusts a driving voltage of the at least one of the sub-electrodes to change the optical axis direction of the lens assembly in response that the light intensity signal of the lens assembly is greater than the threshold value and the human eye's position is in the path of the reflected light of the incident light by the reflective layer; and
the controller controls the driving voltages of the sub-electrodes to remain unchanged in response that the light intensity signal does not reach the threshold, and/or the human eye position is not in the path of the reflected light;
wherein the anti-glare apparatus comprises a plurality of areas, each of the plurality of areas comprises the lens assembly, and an optical axis of the lens assembly of each of the plurality of areas is independently adjustable by the controller;
wherein the first driving electrode of the lens assembly of each of the plurality of areas comprises the plurality of sub-electrodes and the second driving electrode of the lens assembly of each of the plurality of areas merge into an integral driving electrode;
wherein the anti-glare apparatus comprises at least one camera in each of the plurality of areas, and the at least one camera in each area of the anti-glare apparatus is configured to acquire the intensity signal of the incident light of the lens assembly of the corresponding area.

2. The anti-glare apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the controller is configured to control whether to change the optical axis direction of the lens assembly of each area independently based on a combination of the intensity signal of the incident light of the corresponding area and the human eye's position.

3. The anti-glare apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the controller is configured to determine whether the light intensity signal of the lens assembly of each area is greater than the threshold value and whether the human eye's position is in a path of the reflected light of the incident light on the lens assembly of each area;
the controller controls to adjust a driving voltage of at least one of the sub-electrodes of the corresponding area to change the optical axis direction of the lens assembly of the corresponding area in response that the light intensity signal of the lens assembly of one area is greater than the threshold value and the human eye's position is in a path of the reflected light of the incident light on the lens assembly of the corresponding area;
the controller controls driving voltages of the sub-electrodes of the corresponding area to remain unchanged in response that the light intensity signal of the lens assembly of one area is not greater than the threshold value and/or the human eye's position is not in a path of the reflected light of the incident light on the lens assembly of the corresponding area.

4. The anti-glare apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the controller is configured to determine whether the light intensity signal of the lens assembly of each area is greater than the threshold value,
the controller controls to adjust driving voltages of the sub-electrodes of the corresponding area with a first parameter to change the optical axis direction of the lens assembly of the corresponding area in response that the light intensity signal of the lens assembly of one area is greater than the threshold value;
the controller is then configured to determine whether the human eye's position is in a path of the reflected light of the incident light on the lens assembly of the corresponding area after adjusting the driving voltages,
the controller controls to adjust the driving voltages of the sub-electrodes of the corresponding area with a second parameter to change the optical axis direction of the lens assembly of the corresponding area in response that the human eye's position is in the path of the reflected light of the incident light on the lens assembly of the corresponding area after adjusting the driving voltages,
wherein the first parameter and the second parameter each comprise a plurality of driving voltages applied on the plurality of sub-electrodes respectively, and the first parameter is different from the second parameter.

5. A mirror, comprising the anti-glare apparatus according to claim 1 .

6. The mirror according to claim 5 , further comprising an outer frame and a protective layer, and at least a portion of the anti-glare apparatus is inside an area surrounded by the outer frame and the protective layer.

7. The mirror according to claim 6 , wherein at least a portion of a surface of the outer frame facing the protective layer is commonly used as the reflective layer of the anti-glare apparatus.

8. The mirror according to claim 7 , wherein the protective layer is made of a transparent material.

9. The mirror according to claim 5 , wherein the mirror is an interior rearview mirror, an exterior rearview mirror, or a lower view mirror of a vehicle.

10. The mirror according to claim 5 , wherein the mirror is a corner mirror.

Assignees

• Boe Technology Group Co Ltd
• Beijing Boe Technology Dev Co Ltd

Inventors

• Zhang Junrui
• Lan Ronghua
• Feng Hongbo
• Zhu Xuehui
• Tang Hao
• Guo Meng
• Cheng Jiuyang

Classifications

• B60R1/088

  using a cell of electrically changeable optical characteristic, e.g. liquid-crystal or electrochromic mirrors · CPC title

• G02F2201/58

  Arrangements comprising a monitoring photodetector · CPC title

• G02F1/29 Primary

  for the control of the position or the direction of light beams, i.e. deflection · CPC title