Automobile
AssigneeNichia Corporation
InventorsHajime Akimoto, Yuta Hamazaki
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automobile includes a vehicle, a light source, a sensor, and a controller. The light source is disposed in the vehicle and configured to emit first light toward a first region of a road surface and emit second light toward a second region that is located directly below the vehicle on the road surface and is different from the first region. The sensor is disposed in the vehicle to detect the second light regularly reflected in the second region. The controller is configured to control the light source to set at least one of an intensity or a spectrum of the first light or an image projected with the first light based on a detection result of the sensor.
Claims20
An automobile comprising:
- a vehicle;
- a light source disposed in the vehicle and configured to emit first light toward a first region of a road surface and emit second light toward a second region that is located directly below the vehicle on the road surface and is different from the first region;
- a sensor disposed in the vehicle to detect the second light regularly reflected in the second region;
- and
- a controller configured to control the light source to set at least one of an intensity or a spectrum of the first light or an image projected with the first light based on a detection result of the sensor, wherein
- the light source includes
- a control circuit;
- and
- a plurality of light-emitting elements connected to the control circuit, each of the plurality of light-emitting elements being independently controllable by the control circuit,
- the first region includes a first subregion and a second subregion that is closer to the vehicle than is the first subregion and separated from the first subregion,
- light emitted from a first part of the light-emitting elements is directed to the first subregion and light emitted from a second part of the light-emitting elements is directed to the second subregion, and
- a luminance of the first part of the light-emitting elements is different from a luminance of the second part of the light-emitting elements.
An automobile comprising:
- a vehicle;
- a light source disposed in the vehicle and configured to emit first light toward a first region of a road surface and emit second light toward a second region that is located directly below the vehicle on the road surface and is different from the first region;
- a sensor disposed in the vehicle to detect the second light regularly reflected in the second region;
- and
- a controller configured to control the light source to set at least one of an intensity or a spectrum of the first light or an image projected with the first light based on a detection result of the sensor, wherein
- the sensor is configured to measure a length of a path of the second light from the light source to the sensor when the sensor detects reflected light of the second light, and
- the controller is configured to cause an alert image to be projected with the first light on the first region when the length of the path is shorter than a reference length set in advance.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.