Headlight apparatus for automotive vehicle
AssigneeNissan Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorYasutoshi Seko
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
To accurately shade headlamp light for both a leading vehicle running on the same lane and an opposed vehicle running on an opposed lane, the headlight apparatus for an automotive vehicle comprises a movable headlamp, a light sensor attached on the pivotal headlamp for detecting presence of a leading vehicle, an adjusting mechanism for adjusting the optical axis of the headlamp, a controller for actuating the adjusting mechanism in response to sensor signals of the light sensor to move the headlamp so that angle of headlamp optical axis can be adjusted according to distance to a leading vehicle, and a shading plate disposed independently from the optical axis motion of the headlamp for shading light for an opposed vehicle.
Claims8
A headlight apparatus for an automotive vehicle, comprising:
- (a) headlamp means for emitting light in such a way that an optical axis of the light can be adjusted;
- (b) first sensor means, attached to said headlamp means, for detecting a presence of a leading vehicle and generating sensor signals corresponding thereto;
- (c) adjusting means, associated with said headlamp means, for adjusting the optical axis of said headlamp means;
- (d) control means, coupled to said first sensor means and said adjustment means, for actuating said adjusting means in such a way that a position of the axis of said headlamp means can be adjusted to illuminate a predetermined area determined according to a distance to the leading vehicle in response to a signal detected by said first sensor means;
- and
- (e) first fixed shading means, fixedly disposed independently from optical axis motion of said headlamp means, for shading part of light emitted by said headlamp means for an opposed vehicle.
A headlight apparatus for an automotive vehicle, comprising:
- (a) headlamp means for emitting light in such a way that an optical axis of the light can be adjusted;
- (b) first sensor means having a plurality of vertically arranged light sensing elements, attached to said headlamp means, for detecting presence of a leading vehicle and generating sensor signals corresponding thereto;
- (c) adjusting means, associated with said headlamp means, for adjusting the optical axis of said headlamp means;
- (d) control means, coupled to said first sensor means and said adjusting means, for actuating said adjusting means in such a way that tail lamps of a leading vehicle can be detected by a predetermined light sensing element of said first sensor means when the brightest headlight zone of said headlamp means reaches a predetermined lower portion of a leading vehicle and therefore an angle of an optical axis of said headlamp means can be adjusted according to distance to a leading vehicle;
- and
- (e) first fixed shading means, fixedly disposed independently from optical axis motion of said headlamp means, for shading part of light emitted by said headlamp means for an opposed vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.