Automatic light intensity control device for vehicle rear lamps in response to changes in visibility distance and its control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12552309-B2
Application number	US-202318494362-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 25, 2023
Priority date	Mar 16, 2023
Publication date	Feb 17, 2026
Grant date	Feb 17, 2026

Abstract

The present invention relates to an automatic light intensity control device for vehicle rear lamps in response to changes in visibility distance and its control method. To this end, the automatic light intensity control device for vehicle rear lamps of the present invention comprises: a visibility distance measurement unit that is mounted on a driving vehicle or installed in the vicinity of a driving road to measure a visibility distance of the road in real time; and a light intensity calculation and control unit that is mounted on the driving vehicle to calculate an appropriate light intensity using visibility distance information measured by the visibility distance measurement unit and then control the light intensity of rear lamps in real time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An automatic light intensity control device for vehicle rear lamps in response to changes in visibility distance, the automatic light intensity control device comprising:
a visibility distance measurement unit 10 that is mounted on a driving vehicle and configured to measure a visibility distance of a driving road in real time; and a light intensity calculation and control unit 20 that is mounted on the driving vehicle, and configured to calculate an appropriate light intensity (Cd) using visibility distance information (Md) measured by the visibility distance measurement unit 10 and then control the light intensity of rear lamps RL in real time, and determine the appropriate light intensity (Cd) using real-time visibility distance information (Md) based on accumulated data accounting the driver's perception and reaction, obtained by measuring the light intensity of the rear lamps RL and a braking deceleration according to the visibility distance; and a speed detection unit 30 configured to detect the speeds of a driving vehicle (LV) and a following vehicle (FV) in real time, and transmit the detected speeds to the light intensity calculation and control unit 20 , wherein the appropriate light intensity (Cd) calculated by the light intensity calculation and control unit 20 is determined through regression analysis on the accumulated data, and the appropriate light intensity (Cd) is determined as a minimum light intensity that satisfies a standard braking deceleration, wherein when the speed (V f ) of the following vehicle (FV) is higher than the speed (V l ) of the driving vehicle (LV), the light intensity calculation and control unit 20 determines the appropriate light intensity (Cd) by calculating a difference(s) in an appropriate braking distance between the driving vehicle (LV) and the following vehicle (FV) and correcting the visibility distance information (Md), and wherein the rear lamps RL are further provided with an infrared LED, and if the visibility distance information (Md) is below a reference value, an infrared control unit turns on the infrared LED of the rear lamps RL.

2 . The automatic light intensity control device for vehicle rear lamps in response to changes in visibility distance of claim 1 , wherein the visibility distance measurement unit 10 comprises:
a video capturing module 11 that captures a video of the driving road in real time;
an area recognition module 12 that identifies a driving area using the video captured by the video capturing module 11 ; and
a visibility distance calculation module 13 that determines visibility distance information (Md) based on the driving area identified by the area recognition module 12 .

3 . An automatic light intensity control method for vehicle rear lamps in response to changes in visibility distance, the automatic light intensity control method comprising:
a visibility distance measurement step (S 10 ) in which a visibility distance measurement unit 10 mounted on a driving vehicle measures a visibility distance of a driving road in real time; a speed detection step (S 20 ) in which a speed detection unit 30 detects the speeds of a driving vehicle (LV) and a following vehicle (FV) in real time and transmits the detected speeds to a light intensity calculation and control unit 20 ; a braking distance calculation step (S 30 ) in which the light intensity calculation and control unit 20 calculates a difference(s) in an appropriate braking distance between the driving vehicle (LV) and the following vehicle (FV) based on the speed (V l ) of the driving vehicle and the speed (V f ) of the following vehicle; an appropriate light intensity calculation step (S 40 ) in which an light intensity calculation and control unit 20 mounted on the driving vehicle calculates an appropriate light intensity (Cd) using visibility distance information (Md); and a light intensity control step (S 50 ) in which the light intensity calculation and control unit 20 controls the light intensity of rear lamps RL in real time, wherein the appropriate light intensity (Cd) calculated by the light intensity calculation and control unit 20 is determined through regression analysis on accumulated data accounting the driver's perception and reaction, obtained by measuring the light intensity of the rear lamps RL and a braking deceleration according to the visibility distance, and the appropriate light intensity (Cd) is determined as a minimum light intensity that satisfies a standard braking deceleration, wherein when the speed (V f ) of the following vehicle (FV) is higher than the speed (V l ) of the driving vehicle (LV), the appropriate light intensity calculation step (S 40 ) determines the appropriate light intensity (Cd) by calculating the difference(s) in the appropriate braking distance between the driving vehicle (LV) and the following vehicle (FV) and correcting the visibility distance information (Md), and wherein the rear lamps RL is further provided with an infrared LED, and if the visibility distance information (Md) is below a reference value, an infrared control unit turns on the infrared LED of the rear lamps RL.

4 . The automatic light intensity control method for vehicle rear lamps in response to changes in visibility distance of claim 3 , wherein the visibility distance measurement step (S 10 ) may comprise:
a step (S 11 ) in which the visibility distance measurement unit 10 captures a video of the driving road in real time; a step (S 12 ) in which the visibility distance measurement unit 10 identifies a driving area using the captured video; and a step (S 13 ) in which the visibility distance measurement unit 10 determines visibility distance information (Md) based on the identified driving area.

Assignees

• Korea Inst Civil Eng & Building Tech

Inventors

• Lee Suk-Ki
• Kim Yongseok
• Park Won Il
• Park Ki-Soo

Classifications

• B60W2420/403

  Image sensing, e.g. optical camera · CPC title

• B60W40/02

  related to ambient conditions · CPC title

• B60Q2300/054

  Variable non-standard intensity, i.e. emission of various beam intensities different from standard intensities, e.g. continuous or stepped transitions of intensity · CPC title

• H05B45/12

  using optical feedback · CPC title

• B60Q2800/10

  Autonomous vehicles · CPC title