A headlight controller including an adaptive driving beam (ADB) to control a right and left headlight including a plurality of light-emitting chips that can be independently driven and thereby can provide various light distribution patterns including a light-emitting intensity, comprising:
- a camera having an optical axis being located adjacent a subject vehicle having the right and left headlight, configured to photograph at least one vehicle located in a forward direction of the subject vehicle, and the camera being configured to output the at least one vehicle photographed by the camera as image data, each of the right and left headlight providing at least a high beam;
- a vehicle detector detecting the at least one vehicle in accordance with the image data output from the camera, detecting locating data of the at least one vehicle with respect to the optical axis of the camera, and being configured to output said vehicle data as a first vehicle data;
- an oncoming vehicle detector configured to judge whether the vehicle is an oncoming vehicle or not in accordance with the first vehicle data output from the vehicle detector, and configured to output said vehicle data as a second vehicle data;
- a light-emitting area controller determining light-emitting area data including a light-emitting area and a non-light-emitting area for the high beam in accordance with the first vehicle data output from the vehicle detector and the second vehicle data output from the oncoming vehicle detector;
- a circling detector configured to calculate a curvature of a road, on which the subject vehicle drives, by using a vehicle speed signal and a rudder angle signal output from the subject vehicle, configured to judge whether the road is a curved road or a substantially straight road in accordance with the curvature of the road, and configured to output said road data as a vehicle road data;
- a timing controller configured to store a first time at a first timing factor and a second timing factor when the road is a substantially straight road in accordance with the vehicle road data output from the circular detector and when the vehicle is not an oncoming vehicle in accordance with the second vehicle data output from the oncoming vehicle detector, configured to store a second time at the first timing factor and the second timing factor when the road is a curved road in accordance with the vehicle road data output from the circling detector and when the vehicle is an oncoming vehicle in accordance with the second vehicle data output from the oncoming vehicle detector, and configured to output the first time or the second time stored at the first timing factor and the second timing factor, wherein each of the first time and the second time is a time while at least one of the light-emitting chips gradually turns on from a turning-off state and another time while at least one of the light-emitting chips gradually turns off from a turning-on state, respectively;
- a light-emitting area controller configured to output the light-emitting area data every time the light-emitting area controller detects that the at least one vehicle moves in accordance with the first vehicle data output from the vehicle detector;
- a light distribution controller configured to receive the light-emitting area data output from the light-emitting area controller and time data output from the first timing factor and the second timing factor of the timing controller, and configured to output a light-emitting control signal to the right and left headlight of the object vehicle in accordance with the light-emitting area data;
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- wherein each of a time while the right and left headlight gradually changes from the non-light-emitting area to the light-emitting area and another time while the right and left headlight gradually changes from the light-emitting area to the non-light-emitting area is stored at the first timing factor as the first time and at the second timing factor as the second time, respectively, when the right and left headlight varies the light distribution pattern including the light-emitting area and the non-light-emitting area for only the high beam, and wherein each of the first time and the second time is shorter when the subject vehicle drives on the curved road and the at least one vehicle is the oncoming vehicle than that when the subject vehicle drives on the substantially straight road and/or the at least one vehicle is the oncoming vehicle even when each of the right and left headlight provides only the high beam.