Headlight lens for a vehicle headlight

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9719649-B2
Application number	US-201314648097-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 10, 2013
Priority date	Jan 23, 2013
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

Techniques for encoded data processing which allow for continuous data processing as encoded data changes. Data is decomposed into one or more blocks with each block containing at least one data record. At least one data record within a given block is encoded with a first encoding process selected from one or more encoding processes. The first encoding process is associated with the given data block. Techniques evaluate whether or not to implement an encoding change for a given block when updating a given data record in the given block. Responsive to the evaluation, the given block is re-encoded with a second encoding process. Responsive to the re-encoding, the association of the given block is updated. A map is formed to convert the given data record encoded with the first encoding process to the second encoding process so as to preserve comparative relationships of the given data record.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A headlight lens for a vehicle headlight, the headlight lens including a body of transparent material, the body comprising:
a light passage section having at least one optically effective light exit face, and
a light tunnel having at least one light entry face, wherein the light tunnel, via a bend, transits into the light passage section configured for imaging the bend as a bright-dark-boundary via light irradiated into the light entry face, wherein the surface restricting the light tunnel upwardly incorporates an indentation, wherein the light tunnel, between the light entry face and the indentation, comprises a region on its upwardly restricting surface which essentially corresponds to part of the surface of an ellipsoid, and wherein the indentation includes a flank which is part of the region corresponding to the surface of an ellipsoid.

2. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the light tunnel includes at least two longitudinal segments, a longitudinal segment including a longitudinal side and a narrow side which is shorter than the longitudinal side.

3. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the light tunnel includes at least two longitudinal segments, with their extensions starting from the light entry face, a longitudinal segment including a longitudinal side and a narrow side which is shorter than the longitudinal side.

4. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the narrow side of the longitudinal segment extends transversally with respect to the light tunnel.

5. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the longitudinal side essentially extends in the direction of an optical axis of the light tunnel.

6. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the longitudinal side extends at an angle of less than 30° with respect to an optical axis of the light tunnel.

7. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the light tunnel includes at least three longitudinal segments, with their extensions starting from the light entry face, a longitudinal segment including a longitudinal side and a narrow side which is shorter than the longitudinal side.

8. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the light tunnel includes at least two longitudinal segments, starting from the light entry face and extending up to the transversal indentation.

9. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the body of transparent material is monolithic.

10. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the transparent material is inorganic glass.

11. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 10 , the bend being a curved transition having a radius of curvature of at least 0.05 mm.

12. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the light tunnel includes at least three longitudinal segments, the segments comprising a region on their surface, which essentially corresponds to a portion of the surface of an ellipsoid.

13. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 12 , wherein an ellipsoid of an outer longitudinal segment has a distance of the focal length, which is larger than the distance of the focal length of an ellipsoid of an inner longitudinal segment.

14. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 12 , wherein an ellipsoid of an outer longitudinal segment has a distance of the focal length, which is by δ % larger than the distance of the focal length of an ellipsoid of an inner longitudinal segment, wherein δ is no smaller than 1.

15. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 14 , wherein δ is no larger than 10.

16. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 14 , wherein δ is no larger than 5.

17. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the axes of the ellipsoids have different inclinations with regard to a horizontal plane.

18. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the axes of the ellipsoids are aligned asymmetrically with respect to an optical axis of the light tunnel.

19. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the axes of the ellipsoids have different distances with regard to the optical axis of the light tunnel in a plane which is orthogonal to the optical axis of the light tunnel.

20. A headlight lens for a vehicle headlight, the headlight lens including a monolithic body of transparent material, the monolithic body comprising:
a light passage section having at least one optically effective light exit face, and
a light tunnel having at least one light entry face, wherein the light tunnel, via a bend. transits into the light passage section configured for imaging the bend as a bright-dark-boundary via light irradiated into the light entry face, wherein the surface restricting the light tunnel upwardly includes an indentation, wherein the light tunnel, on its surface between the light entry face and the indentation, includes at least three longitudinal segments with their extension starting from the light entry face and the segments comprising a region on their surface, which essentially corresponds to a portion of the surface of an ellipsoid, wherein an ellipsoid of an outer longitudinal segment has a distance of the focal length, which is larger than the distance of the focal length of an ellipsoid of an inner longitudinal segment.

21. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 20 , wherein an ellipsoid of an outer longitudinal segment has a distance of the focal length, which is by δ % larger than the distance of the focal length of an ellipsoid of an inner longitudinal segment, wherein δ is no smaller than 1.

22. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 21 , wherein δ is no larger than 10.

23. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 21 , wherein δ is no larger than 5.

24. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 20 , the axes of the ellipsoids have different inclinations with regard to the horizontal plane.

25. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 20 , wherein the axes of the ellipsoids are aligned asymmetrically with respect to an optical axis of the light tunnel.

26. The headlight lens as claimed in claim 20 , wherein the light exit face comprises a first segment and at least one second segment. wherein the light exit face comprises, in a region of the first segment, a first light dispersing structure, and, in a region of the second segment, a second light dispersing structure, wherein the first light dispersing structure differs from the second light dispersing structure.

27. A headlight lens for a vehicle headlight, the headlight lens including a body of transparent material, the body comprising:
a light passage section having at least one optically effective light exit face, and
a light tunnel having at least one light entry face, wherein the light tunnel, via a bend, transits into the light passage section configured for imaging the bend as a bright-dark-boundary via light irradiated into the light entry face, wherein the light exit face comprises a first segment and at least one second segment, wherein the light exit face comprises, in a region of the first segment, a first light dispersing structure, and, in a region of the second segment, a second light dispersing structure, wherein the first light dispersing structure differs from the second light dispersing structure.

Assignees

• Docter Optics Se

Inventors

• Wintzer Wolfram
• Scheibner Hans
• Mozaffari Mohsen

Classifications

• F21S48/1291 Primary

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• G02B3/08

  with discontinuous faces, e.g. Fresnel lens {(diffractive Fresnel lenses G02B5/1876)} · CPC title

• F21S48/1241

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• F21S48/1159

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• F21S41/27

  Thick lenses · CPC title