JP-2026074707-A - Dimming control device

Abstract

[Problem] To provide a dimming control device that can control the dimming unit in accordance with changes in the direction of the vehicle relative to the light source. [Solution] The dimming control device 100 includes a dimming unit 3 that dimms the transmittance of light incident on the vehicle's window glass, an occupant state acquisition unit 11 that acquires the eye position of the vehicle's occupant, a face illuminance acquisition unit 12 that acquires the illuminance of light on the occupant's face, and a dimming control unit 13 that controls the dimming unit 3 based on the eye position and the illuminance. The dimming control unit 13 changes at least one of the dimming position, which dimms the transmittance of light on the window glass, and the dimming degree, which is the degree to which the transmittance of light is dimmed, in accordance with the change in illuminance at the eye position. [Selection Diagram] Figure 1

Inventors

• 鈴木 康治

Assignees

• トヨタ自動車株式会社

Dates

Publication Date

20260507

Application Date

20241021

Claims (3)

1. A dimming unit that adjusts the transmittance of light incident on the vehicle's window glass, An occupant status acquisition unit that acquires the eye position of the occupant of the vehicle, A face illuminance acquisition unit that acquires the illuminance of the light on the face of the occupant, The system includes a dimming control unit that controls the dimming unit based on the eye position and the illuminance, The dimming control unit is a dimming control device that changes at least one of the dimming position for dimming the light transmittance in the window glass and the dimming degree, which is the degree to which the light transmittance is dimmed, in accordance with the change in illuminance at the eye position.
2. The occupant status acquisition unit acquires the opening value of at least one of the occupant's eyelid opening and the occupant's pupil opening. The dimming control device according to claim 1, wherein the dimming control unit, when it estimates that the occupant is in a dazzling state based on the result of comparing the opening value with a predetermined opening threshold, changes at least one of the dimming position and the dimming degree.
3. The dimming control device according to claim 2, wherein the dimming control unit sets the opening threshold based on the opening value at the point when it is estimated that the occupant is no longer in a state of glare, after previously being estimated to be in a state of glare.

Description

This disclosure relates to a dimming control device. Conventionally, a technology related to dimming control devices is known that estimates the driver's viewpoint position and controls a light-blocking means to block light that would otherwise enter the driver's eyes through the front windshield, based on the light source position and the viewpoint position (for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-145219). Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-145219 Block diagram of a dimming control device according to one embodiment.This is a schematic diagram of the interior of a vehicle showing an example of the placement of the dimming unit.This is a schematic diagram showing an example of a dimming unit.This is a schematic diagram showing an example of a dimming unit after changing the dimming position and dimming degree.Figure 1 is a flowchart illustrating an example of ECU processing.Figure 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the process for estimating the dizziness state of the crew members. The embodiments of this disclosure will be described below with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 is a block diagram showing a dimming control device according to one embodiment. The dimming control device 100 is a device that controls a dimming unit that adjusts the transmittance of light incident on the vehicle's window glass. The dimming control device 100 is installed, for example, in a vehicle such as a passenger car. [Configuration of the dimming control device] As shown in Figure 1, the dimming control device 100 includes an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) 10. The ECU 10 is an electronic control unit having a CPU (Central Processing Unit), ROM (Read Only Memory), RAM (Random Access Memory), CAN (Controller Area Network) communication circuit, etc. The ECU 10 realizes various functions, for example, by loading a program stored in ROM into RAM and executing the program loaded into RAM with the CPU. The ECU 10 may be composed of multiple electronic units. The ECU 10 is connected to the illuminance sensor 1, the driver monitor camera 2, and the dimming unit 3. The illuminance sensor 1 is a sensor for acquiring the illuminance of light on the driver's (occupant's) face. The illuminance sensor 1 is installed, for example, in an overhead module located on the ceiling of the vehicle's interior, facing the driver's face. The illuminance sensor 1 detects, for example, the brightness of the driver's face surface illuminated by light as illuminance. In this case, illuminance can be measured using a physical quantity with units of lux. The illuminance sensor 1 transmits the detected illuminance information to the ECU 10. The driver monitoring camera 2 is a camera for capturing images of the driver's face. For example, the driver monitoring camera 2 is mounted on the steering column cover of the vehicle, facing the driver's face. Multiple driver monitoring cameras 2 may be provided to capture images of the driver from multiple directions. The driver monitoring camera 2 transmits the captured images of the driver to the ECU 10. The dimming unit 3 is a component that adjusts the transmittance of light incident on the windshield 52 (window glass) of the vehicle 50. The dimming unit 3 is, for example, a dimmable glass or a dimmable film. The dimmable glass or film may include a film-like component that controls light transmittance using liquid crystal or the like. The dimming unit 3 may also include a liquid crystal cell, a polarizing plate including a polarizer, and a polarizing plate protective film adjacent to the polarizer. Other known components capable of adjusting the transmittance of incident light in response to a control signal from the ECU 10 can be used as the dimming unit 3. Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the vehicle interior showing an example of the placement of the dimming unit. As an example, Figure 2 shows the windshield 52 and the dimming unit 3 in the vehicle interior space 51 of the vehicle 50. As shown in Figure 2, the dimming unit 3 in this embodiment is positioned in the upper edge region 53 of the windshield 52. The upper edge region 53 is the area within, for example, 20% of the overall vertical dimension of the windshield 52 from the upper edge of the windshield 52. The dimming unit 3 is positioned on the driver's side (right side in this case) of the windshield 52 included in the upper edge region 53. If the vehicle 50 is a left-hand drive vehicle, the dimming unit 3 may be positioned on the left side of the windshield 52 included in the upper edge region 53. Figure 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a dimming unit. Figure 3 schematically shows the dimming unit 3 as seen from the driver. As shown in Figure 3, the dimming unit 3 is composed of, for example, multiple segments 3a arranged in a matrix. In the example of Figure 3, the shape of each segment 3a is rectangular. The shape of each segment 3a is not limited to this example. The shape of each segment 3a may be, for