Patent Application
20230020516
This relates generally to systems such as vehicles, and, more particularly, vehicles that have lights.
Automobiles and other vehicles have lights such as headlights. To accommodate different driving conditions, headlights are sometimes provided with adjustable settings such as low beam and high beam settings.
A vehicle may have lights such as headlights and other vehicle lights for providing vehicle illumination. The lights may be electrically adjustable so that the color and pattern of the illumination may be varied. Control circuitry in a vehicle may adjust the lights based on sensor data, user input, and other criteria.
A light such as headlight may have a light source such as a white light source or multicolored light source, a light collimator that receives light from the light source, and an adjustable lens array that receives collimated light from the light collimator and outputs corresponding adjustable vehicle illumination.
The adjustable lens array may have first and second arrays of lens elements that are aligned with each other. The adjustable lens array may have an electrically adjustable light modulator located between the first and second lens element arrays. A mask may have openings aligned with respective adjustable light modulator elements in the adjustable light modulator.
The first array of lens elements may receive collimated light from the light collimator. Each of the first lens elements may focus light through a respective opening in the mask and through a corresponding one of the adjustable light modulator elements. Light exiting each adjustable light modulator element may be collimated to form parallel or nearly parallel output light rays.
During operation, the light modulator elements in the adjustable lens array may be individually adjusted and the light source may be adjusted. This allows the light to create output illumination with a desired beam pattern and color. The output illumination may serve as headlight illumination or other vehicle illumination.
A system such as a vehicle or other system may have components that emit light such as headlights and other lights. Headlights may be used to illuminate roadways and other objects in the vicinity of a vehicle. The illumination provided by the headlights allows vehicle occupants to view the objects at night or in other dim ambient lighting conditions and facilitates the operation of sensors. For example, headlight illumination at visible and/or infrared wavelengths may be used to provide illumination for image sensors that are used by an autonomous driving system or driver's assistance system.
The illumination that is emitted by the headlights may be adjusted. For example, the headlights may have adjustable lens arrays and other adjustable components that allow the pattern of illumination emitted by the headlights to be adjusted. Headlights may, as an example, be adjusted to narrow or widen headlight beams and/or to otherwise adjust the shape of the headlight illumination pattern. If desired, the color of emitted light may be varied. Headlight beam adjustments may be used to switch the headlights between operation in high-beam and low-beam modes, to steer headlight beams to the left and right (e.g., to accommodate curves in a road), to spotlight objects of interest, to enhance headlight performance under particular weather conditions or other operating conditions, to provide alerts to pedestrians or others, and/or to otherwise vary the properties of the headlight output.
Vehicle 10 may be manually driven (e.g., by a human driver), may be operated via remote control, and/or may be autonomously operated (e.g., by an autonomous driving system or other autonomous propulsion system). Using vehicle sensors such as lidar, radar, visible and/or infrared cameras (e.g., two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional cameras), proximity (distance) sensors, and/or other sensors, an autonomous driving system and/or driver-assistance system in vehicle 10 may perform automatic braking, steering, and/or other operations to help avoid pedestrians, inanimate objects, and/or other external structures such as illustrative obstacle 26 on roadway 14.
Vehicle 10 may include a body such as vehicle body 12. Body 12 may include vehicle structures such as body panels formed from metal and/or other materials, may include doors 18, a hood, a trunk, fenders, a chassis to which wheels are mounted, a roof, etc. Windows may be formed in doors 18 and other portions of vehicle body 12 (e.g., on the sides of vehicle body 12, on the roof of vehicle 10, and/or in other portions of vehicle 10). Windows, doors 18, and other portions of body 12 may separate the interior of vehicle 10 from the exterior environment that is surrounding vehicle 10. Doors 18 may be opened and closed to allow people to enter and exit vehicle 10. Seats and other structures may be formed in the interior of vehicle body 12.
Vehicle 10 may have automotive lighting such as one or more headlights (sometimes referred to as headlamps), driving lights, fog lights, daytime running lights, turn signals, brake lights, and/or other lights. As shown in
If desired, headlights or other vehicle lights may be used to assist a user of vehicle 10 who is approaching vehicle 10 and/or may be used to communicate with pedestrians or others nearby. As an example, headlights or other vehicle lights may be used to light up the area around vehicle 10 with illumination 20 whenever sensors in vehicle 10 detect that a user is approaching vehicle 10. In this way, a user may be able to better view obstacles near the vehicle and can walk around such obstacles. As another example, pedestrians may be waiting to cross in front of vehicle 10 after vehicle 10 has come to a stop at a crosswalk. To help inform the pedestrians that it is safe to cross, vehicle 10 may adjust headlights or other vehicle lights to illuminate the crosswalk. A given color of light (e.g., green light for safe crossing conditions or a red light otherwise), a particular pattern of light (e.g., an arrow orientated along the crosswalk or a stop sign), time-varying light characteristics (e.g., slow flashing at 1 Hz, a chasing light pattern, etc.), and/or any other suitable aspect of illumination 20 may be used to inform the pedestrians when it is safe to cross the street and/or to otherwise provide information to people in the vicinity of vehicle 10.
Vehicle 10 may have components 24. Components 24 may include propulsion and steering systems (e.g., manually adjustable driving systems and/or autonomous driving systems having wheels coupled to body 12, steering controls, one or more motors for driving the wheels, etc.), and other vehicle systems. Components 24 may include control circuitry and input-output devices. Control circuitry in components 24 may be configured to run an autonomous driving application, a navigation application (e.g., an application for displaying maps on a display), and software for controlling vehicle climate control devices, lighting, media playback, window movement, door operations, sensor operations, and/or other vehicle operations. For example, the control system may form part of an autonomous driving system that drives vehicle 10 on roadways such as roadway 14 autonomously using data such as sensor data. The control circuitry may include processing circuitry and storage and may be configured to perform operations in vehicle 10 using hardware (e.g., dedicated hardware or circuitry), firmware and/or software. Software code for performing operations in vehicle 10 and other data is stored on non-transitory computer readable storage media (e.g., tangible computer readable storage media) in the control circuitry. The software code may sometimes be referred to as software, data, program instructions, computer instructions, instructions, or code. The non-transitory computer readable storage media may include non-volatile memory such as non-volatile random-access memory, one or more hard drives (e.g., magnetic drives or solid-state drives), one or more removable flash drives or other removable media, or other storage. Software stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage media may be executed on the processing circuitry of components 24. The processing circuitry may include application-specific integrated circuits with processing circuitry, one or more microprocessors, a central processing unit (CPU) or other processing circuitry.
The input-output devices of components 24 may include displays, light-emitting diodes and other light-emitting devices, haptic devices, speakers, and/or other devices for providing output. Output devices in components 24 may, for example, be used to provide vehicle occupants and others with haptic output, audio output, visual output (e.g., displayed content, light, etc.), and/or other suitable output. The input-output devices of components 24 may also include input devices such as buttons, sensors, and other devices for gathering user input, for gathering environmental measurements, for gathering information on vehicle operations, and/or for gathering other information. The sensors in components 24 may include ambient light sensors, touch sensors, force sensors, proximity sensors, optical sensors such as cameras operating at visible, infrared, and/or ultraviolet wavelengths (e.g., fisheye cameras, two-dimensional cameras, three-dimensional cameras, and/or other cameras), capacitive sensors, resistive sensors, ultrasonic sensors (e.g., ultrasonic distance sensors), microphones, radio-frequency sensors such as radar sensors, lidar (light detection and ranging) sensors, door open/close sensors, seat pressure sensors and other vehicle occupant sensors, window sensors, position sensors for monitoring location, orientation, and movement, speedometers, satellite positioning system sensors, and/or other sensors.
During operation, the control circuitry of components 24 may gather information from sensors and/or other input-output devices such as lidar data, camera data (e.g., two-dimensional images), radar data, and/or other sensor data. This information may be used by an autonomous driving system and/or driver's assistance system in vehicle 10. This information may also be used in determining the shape of roadway 14, the location of objects such as objects 26 and/or other characteristics of surfaces 28. Based on these measurements, user input, or other information, vehicle 10 may adjust headlights 16. For example, beam shape may be adjusted when oncoming headlights are detected, beam direction may be adjusted to accommodate detected curves in roadway 14, beam shape may be adjusted to help enhance visibility in rain or other weather conditions, beam shape may be adjusted to spotlight detected objects such as object 26, suitable patterns and/or colors of illumination may be output when it is desired to use headlights 16 and/or other vehicle lighting to provide output to nearby pedestrians or others, output light may be adjusted to provide illumination near vehicle 10 as a user walks towards vehicle 10 at night, etc.
A vehicle occupant or other user of vehicle 10 may provide user input to the control circuitry of vehicle 10. Cameras, touch sensors, physical controls, and other input devices may be used to gather the user input. Using wireless communications with vehicle 10, remote data sources may provide the control circuitry of components 24 with database information. If desired, headlights 16 and/or other vehicle lighting may be adjusted based on user input and/or information from a remote data source. For example, information on road conditions (e.g., road size, road type, road shape, road surface, etc.) may be stored in a remote database and this information may be provided to vehicle 10 over a wireless communications link. During operation, vehicle 10 may adjust headlights 16 based on the road condition information.
Headlights 16 may have two-dimensional arrays of components. Headlights 16 may, for example, have arrays of light-emitting diodes and/or other light sources and corresponding arrays of lenses (sometimes referred to as microlens arrays or lens arrays) that control the directions in which light is emitted from the headlights. Headlights 16 may also have light modulator arrays (e.g., arrays of individually adjustable light modulator elements that adjust the amount of light passing through corresponding lenses). If desired, lens elements may be formed from liquid crystal material and/or other material having optical properties (e.g., electrically adjustable refractive index values) that can be adjusted to change lens element focal lengths and/or other lens element optical characteristics.
The arrays of components in headlights 16 may be arranged to form two-dimensional arrays with rows and columns or may be arranged with other two-dimensional layouts. Array components such as lenses and/or light modulator elements may have rectangular outlines or other suitable shapes (e.g., hexagonal footprints, etc.). In an illustrative configuration, which may sometimes be described herein as an example, lens and light modulator elements have rectangular shapes and are arranged in rows and columns in a two-dimensional array (e.g., an N×M array, where the values of N and/or M are at least 2, at least 5, at least 10, less than 50, less than 20, less than 15, and/or less than 10).
Light source 32 may emit light that travels in the +X direction of
An array of light modulator elements such as light modulator array 54 may be interposed between lens array 50 and lens array 58. Array 54 may be separated from lens arrays 50 and 58 by air gaps or gaps 52 and/or 56 between light modulator array 54 and array 50 and/or array 58 may be filled with clear polymer or other transparent material. Light modulator array 54 may have an array of electrically adjustable light modulators elements 54E, which may be individually controlled (e.g., elements 54E may be arranged in a two-dimensional array having columns parallel to the Z axis of
If desired, array 54 may be provided with a masking grid. For example, each element 54E may have a light modulator cell 62E covered by a portion of an opaque mask 64. Mask 64 may be configured so that there is a mask opening 60 that is aligned with the center of each light modulator cell 62E. Mask 64 may help block stray light and thereby reduce or eliminate light rays passing through structures at the boundaries between adjacent cells 62E and may therefore help ensure that the light passing through each light modulator element 54E is passing through a desired active area of that element. Masks such as mask 64 may be provided on the entrance face and/or exit face of array 54 and/or may otherwise be incorporated into array 54.
Vehicle 10 may use sensor input, user input, or other information in determining how to adjust array 42. Consider, as an example, the arrangement of
In the example of
As shown in
In one illustrative configuration, guest-host liquid crystal layer 94 has black absorbing dyes so that elements 54E exhibit neutral transmission. Elements 54E may, for example, appear clear, gray, or black, allowing headlight illumination 20 to appear neutral in color with no color cast when light source 32 emits white light illumination. The transmission dynamic range of array 54 may, as an example, be 1:20 and array 54 may have a response time on the order of milliseconds.
In other illustrative configurations, there are multiple guest-host liquid crystal layers and associated substrates in array 54. For example, multiple guest-host liquid crystal light modulator structures may be stacked on top of each other to form array 54. Each guest-host liquid crystal light modulator layer in this type of stacked configuration may have a dichroic dye or other guest material that is configured to pass light of a different color. For example, a first layer may have an array of red guest-host liquid crystal light modulator elements that pass a selected amount of red light, a second layer may have an array of green guest-host liquid crystal light modulator elements that pass a selected amount of green light, and a third layer may have an array of blue guest-host liquid crystal light modulator elements that pass a selected amount of blue light.
During operation, white light illumination from light source 32 that has passed through light collimator 36 may be supplied to this stacked structure. A masking layer with an array of openings such as mask 64 of
Depending on the settings of the red, green, and blue light modulator elements in the stack of array 54, desired patterns of red, green, and blue light may be emitted from headlight 16. The red, green, and blue light may merge when projected onto surface 28, so that the relative intensity contributed by each color will influence the resulting color of the headlight illumination. By mixing the emitted red, green, and blue light, different non-neutral colors of headlight beams may be created and/or different portions of headlight beams may be provided with different colors. Colored light may also be mixed where there is overlap between the output of different array elements, thereby forming mixed-color areas and/or white light areas.
If desired, light source 32 may have multiple light-emitting devices 34 of different colors. Light source 32 may include, for example, red, green, and blue light-emitting diodes or other non-neutrally colored light-emitting devices. In this type of arrangement, a single layer of light modulator elements 54E may be used to provide colored output for headlight 16. Red light, green light, and blue light may be provided in a series of discrete pulse (e.g., pulses of less than 1/60 s or other short time period to avoid visible flicker effects). Light modulator array 54 may be configured to pass a first pattern of light when the red-light source is active, a second pattern of light when the green light is active, and a third pattern of light when the blue light is active. In this way, headlight beams with desired patterns and colors may be created. As an example, if red light output is desired, the blue and green light sources may be turned off and if white light output is desired, the red, blue, and green sources may all be activated. These types of arrangements and/or other arrangements may be used for providing headlight 16 with the ability to produce colored light illumination regardless of the type of light modulator elements 54E that are used. If desired, light source 30 may include one or more infrared light-emitting devices 34. This allows desired patterns of infrared light to be emitted (e.g., the light-modulator elements of array 54 may be used to modify the pattern of emitted infrared light in addition to modifying the patterns of emitted red, blue, and green light).
Color may be imparted to white light passing through array 54 using colored dyes in guest-host liquid crystal layers or may be provided using other color filter arrangements. For example, in light modulator arrays based on liquid crystal light modulators or electrochromic modulators, color filter structures such as bandpass thin-film interference filters and/or colored ink structures may be used to impart red, green, and blue colors to different layers of modulator elements.
In the example of
An illustrative electrochromic light modulator array is shown in
In lens array arrangements of the type shown in
In some illustrative configurations, the optical properties of the lenses in lens array 42 may be electrically adjusted. Consider, as an example, adjustable lens elements 100 of the two-dimensional lens array of
Lens elements 100 may be adjusted using signals applied to transparent electrodes 106. The pair of transparent electrodes 106 in each lens element 100 may, for example be supplied with a potentially different desired voltage, thereby controlling the electric field across the liquid crystal material of that lens element 100. In this way, the electric field strength in the liquid crystal material of each lens element 100 adjusts the refractive index of that material and thereby changes the focal length and/or other refractive optical property of that lens. Lens elements 100 may have any suitable shape (e.g., the input and output surfaces of the lenses may include concave and/or convex lens surfaces, may include spherical surfaces, planar surfaces, and/or aspheric surfaces, the lenses may have rectangular outlines, circular outlines, hexagonal outlines, and/or other outlines to allow the lenses to be packed into a desired array, etc.). By adjusting the refractive optical properties of lenses 100 electrically, light can be focused and/or defocused, can be steered, and/or can otherwise be controlled to adjust the pattern of illumination provided by headlight 16 (see, e.g., the adjustable illumination patterns of
The array of adjustable lens elements 100 of
The foregoing is merely illustrative and various modifications can be made to the described embodiments. The foregoing embodiments may be implemented individually or in any combination.
This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application No. 63/220,918, filed Jul. 12, 2021, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63220918 | Jul 2021 | US |
