Method and control unit for validating an illumination-range test value of a light cone of a vehicle headlight

A method for validating an illumination-range test value of a light cone of at least one headlight of a vehicle, comprising:

• reading in a reflection intensity of a point on at least one road marking illuminated by the light cone;
• generating a reflection intensity model for the road marking based on a measured reflection intensity and a particular distance of a point from the vehicle, the reflection intensity model to assign different reflection intensities to different positions on the road marking in front of the vehicle;
• determining an illumination-range plausibility value, at which, according to the reflection intensity model, a reflection intensity is reached, which corresponds to a reflection-intensity threshold value;
• and
• comparing the illumination-range plausibility value to the illumination-range test value to validate the illumination-range test value, if the illumination-range plausibility value is inside a tolerance range around the illumination-range test value.

A method for controlling a variable illumination range system of a vehicle, comprising:

• reading in a reflection intensity of a point on at least one road marking illuminated by a light cone of at least one headlight of the vehicle;
• generating a reflection intensity model for the road marking based on a measured reflection intensity and a particular distance of a point from the vehicle, the reflection intensity model to assign different reflection intensities to different positions on the road marking in front of the vehicle;
• determining an illumination-range plausibility value, at which, according to the reflection intensity model, a reflection intensity is reached, which corresponds to a reflection-intensity threshold value;
• comparing the illumination-range plausibility value to the illumination-range test value to validate the illumination-range test value, if the illumination-range plausibility value is inside a tolerance range around the illumination-range test value;
• and
• controlling the variable illumination range system based on the validated illumination-range test value.

A device for validating an illumination-range test value of a light cone of at least one headlight of a vehicle, the device comprising:

• a unit to read in a reflection intensity of a point on at least one road marking illuminated by the light cone;
• a unit to generate a reflection intensity model for the road marking based on the measured reflection intensity and a particular distance of the point from the vehicle, the reflection intensity model to assign different reflection intensities to different positions on the road marking in front of the vehicle;
• a unit to determine an illumination-range plausibility value, at which, according to the reflection intensity model, a reflection intensity is reached which corresponds to a reflection-intensity threshold value;
• and
• a unit to compare the illumination-range plausibility value to the illumination-range test value, and to validate the illumination-range test value if the illumination-range plausibility value is inside a tolerance range around the illumination-range test value.

A computer readable medium storing program code to validate an illumination range test value of a light cone of at least one headlight of a vehicle, the program code, when executed by a processor, causing the processor to perform the steps of:

• reading in a reflection intensity of a point on at least one road marking illuminated by the light cone;
• generating a reflection intensity model for the road marking based on a measured reflection intensity and a particular distance of a point from the vehicle, the reflection intensity model to assign different reflection intensities to different positions on the road marking in front of the vehicle;
• determining an illumination-range plausibility value, at which, according to the reflection intensity model, a reflection intensity is reached, which corresponds to a reflection-intensity threshold value;
• and
• comparing the illumination-range plausibility value to the illumination-range test value to validate the illumination-range test value, if the illumination-range plausibility value is inside a tolerance range around the illumination-range test value.