Solar altitude detector
AssigneeLeopold Kostal GmbH & Co. KG
InventorFrank Blasing
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Abstract
The invention relates to a solar altitude detector (1) for motor vehicles comprising a shade mask (2) in which a passage opening (5) provided for permitting sunlight though is inserted, said opening creating a light structure when irradiated. A sensor array (3) comprising a plurality of individual pixels is representively arranged under the shade mask (2) such that individual sections of the light structure created by the passage opening (5) fall on the photosensitive surface of the sensor array (3) during solar radiation. Various pixels of the sensor array (3) are irradiated according to the incidence angle of the sunlight passing through the passage opening (5) such that a clear statement which refers to the incidence angle and to the incidence direction of the sunlight is possible.
Claims15
A solar altitude detector for motor vehicles, the solar attitude detector comprising:
- a photo sensor line;
- and
- a shade mask horizontally disposed over the photo sensor line, the shade mask having a light passage opening for passing sunlight to the photo sensor line to radiate the photo sensor line with sunlight, the light passage opening having two portions which converge towards each other, wherein the photo sensor line is disposed transversely with respect to the two portions of the light passage opening such that the two portions of the light passage opening pass sunlight to radiate the photo sensor line as a function of the angle of incidence of the sunlight and the direction of incidence of the sunlight.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.