Claims
- 1. A control method for automatically adjusting a view angle of a monitoring device of a turning vehicle, comprising steps of:
receiving an output of a navigation system; determining a turning operation of said vehicle according to said output of said navigation system; and triggering said monitoring device to move in response to said turning operation of said vehicle.
- 2. The control method according to claim 1 further comprising a step of determining a turning level of said turning operation, said monitoring device being triggered to move to an extent corresponding to said turning level.
- 3. The control method according to claim 2 wherein said navigation system is an electronic compass.
- 4. The control method according to claim 3 wherein said turning level of said vehicle is determined by comparing said output of said electronic compass with a preset value.
- 5. The control method according to claim 4 wherein said receiving, comparing and triggering steps are repeated to dynamically adjust a view angle of said monitoring device of said vehicle.
- 6. The control method according to claim 5 further comprising a step of counting a time period, wherein said time period is accumulatively counted when said turning level is kept to be zero, and said time period is counted over whenever said turning level is determined to be non-zero.
- 7. The control method according to claim 6 wherein said output of said electronic compass replaces for said preset value to serve as a new preset value, and said monitoring device is triggered to be restored to its initial position when said counted time period exceeds a predetermined value.
- 8. The control method according to claim 4 wherein said output of said electronic compass is indicative of one of sixteen direction zones, said preset value is indicative of one of said sixteen direction zones, and said turning level is determined to be zero when said output of said electronic compass and said preset value indicate the same direction zone.
- 9. The control method according to claim 8 wherein said turning level correlates to an angle between said direction zones indicated by said output of said electronic compass and said preset value.
- 10. The control method according to claim 2 wherein said navigation system is a global positioning system (GPS).
- 11. The control method according to claim 10 wherein said turning level correlates to a predetermined turning angle under the guidance of said GPS.
- 12. The control method according to claim 11 further comprising a step of triggering said monitoring device to be restored to its initial position when said GPS indicates the completion of a turning operation by said predetermined turning angle.
- 13. The control method according to claim 1 wherein said monitoring device is an exterior rearview mirror.
- 14. The control method according to claim 1 wherein said monitoring device is a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera.
- 15. A control device for automatically adjusting a view angle of a monitoring device of a turning vehicle, comprising a microprocessor which repetitively receives an output of a navigation system, determines a turning operation of said vehicle according to said output of said navigation system, and triggers said monitoring device to move in response to said turning operation of said vehicle.
- 16. The control device according to claim 15 wherein said microprocessor further determines a turning level of said turning operation, and said monitoring device is triggered to move to an extent corresponding to said turning level.
- 17. The control device according to claim 16 wherein said navigation system is a global positioning system (GPS).
- 18. The control device according to claim 16 wherein said navigation system is an electronic compass.
- 19. The control device according to claim 18 wherein said microprocessor further performs a timing operation to accumulatively count a time period when said turning level is zero, and said time period is counted over when said turning level is non-zero.
- 20. The control device according to claim 18 further comprising a timer electrically connected to said microprocessor for counting a time period, wherein said time period is accumulatively counted whenever said microprocessor determines said turning level is zero, and said time period is counted over whenever said microprocessor determines said turning level is non-zero.
- 21. The control method according to claim 20 wherein said microprocessor has said output of said electronic compass replace for said preset value to serve as a new preset value, and triggers said monitoring device to be restored to its initial position when said counted time period exceeds a predetermined value.
- 22. The control device according to claim 15 wherein said monitoring device includes an exterior rearview mirror.
- 23. The control device according to claim 15 wherein said monitoring device includes a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera.
- 24. A control device for automatically adjusting a view angle of a monitoring device of a turning vehicle, comprising a microprocessor electrically connected to a global positioning system (GPS) and a controller area network (CAN) bus, said microprocessor receiving an output of said GPS, and sending out a digital encoding signal to a rearview-mirror actuating device via said CAN bus to trigger said rearview-mirror actuating device to rotate said monitoring device when said output of said GPS indicates that said vehicle arrives at a predetermined turning position.
- 25. A control device for automatically adjusting a view angle of a monitoring device of a turning vehicle, comprising a microprocessor electrically connected to an electronic compass and a controller area network (CAN) bus, said microprocessor receiving an output of said electronic compass, and sending out a digital encoding signal to a rearview-mirror actuating device via said CAN bus to trigger said rearview-mirror actuating device to rotate said monitoring device when said output of said electronic compass indicates that said vehicle is heading a direction different from a preset direction.
- 26. The control device according to claim 25 further comprising a timer electrically connected to said microprocessor for counting a time period, wherein said direction that said vehicle is heading replaces for said preset direction to serve as a new preset direction when said counted time period exceeds a predetermined value.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION
[0001] This patent application is a continuation-in-part (CIP) of a U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/946,094 filed Sep. 4, 2001, and now pending. The content of the related patent application is incorporated herein for reference.
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09946094 |
Sep 2001 |
US |
Child |
10047762 |
Jan 2002 |
US |