Head lamp system

A head lamp system may include a head lamp that may be provided with a headlight and a spotlight unit including a plurality of optical modules having different irradiation regions in front of a vehicle, wherein an optical module of the plurality of optical modules, which has a irradiation region that corresponds to a position of an obstacle in front of the vehicle, blinks, and a blink period of the optical module may be changed according to a vehicle speed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2011-0117852, filed on Nov. 11, 2011 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein for all purposes by this reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a head lamp system which senses obstacles in front of a vehicle at night and irradiates spotlight onto the obstacles. More particularly, the present invention relates to a head lamp system which can improve visibility that is a driver's ability to visually recognize an obstacle during the nighttime driving through changing a blink period of a spotlight according to a driving speed of a vehicle.

2. Description of Related Art

Recently, a head lamp system enables a driver to visually recognize an obstacle through irradiation of light onto a region in which the obstacle is present if such an obstacle is found during the nighttime driving.

Specifically, a head lamp system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-095205, as illustrated inFIG. 1, includes a headlight2irradiating beams in a front direction of a vehicle at night, and a spotlight unit3arranged on a side portion of the headlight2. In this spotlight unit3, a plurality of optical modules R1to R6are provided, which have respective irradiation regions in the front direction of the vehicle as illustrated inFIG. 2.

In the case of recognizing an obstacle such as a pedestrian or the like in front of the vehicle, the head lamp system in the related art irradiates beams onto the obstacle through turning on the optical module that corresponds to the region in which the obstacle is present, and thus a driver recognizes the obstacle. If the sensed obstacle is a pedestrian, the head lamp system turns on the optical module that flashes on the corresponding region, while if the sensed obstacle is a vehicle, the head lamp system turns off the optical module, and thus the driver can recognize the obstacle.

However, since the head lamp system in the related art recognizes the obstacle by means of a simple operation such as turning-on of the corresponding optical module of the spotlight unit, it may not raise driver's awareness. Due to this, the driver's visibility with respect to the obstacle is degraded, and thus the function of the spotlight unit of the head lamp system may not be appropriately utilized.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Various aspects of the present invention are directed to providing a head lamp system which can improve driver's visibility with respect to an obstacle that is present in front of a vehicle during the nighttime driving.

In one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a head lamp system which may include a head lamp that is provided with a headlight and a spotlight unit including a plurality of optical modules having different irradiation regions in front of a vehicle, wherein the optical module of the plurality of optical modules having the irradiation region that corresponds to a position of an obstacle in front of the vehicle blinks, and a blink period of the optical module is changed according to a vehicle speed. According to this configuration, the surroundings are visually evoked through blinking beams, and thus the visibility of the obstacle is heightened. Further, as the blink period of the optical module is changed according to the vehicle speed, the driver's visibility is heightened regardless of the vehicle speed.

In the head lamp system according to the aspect of the present invention, the blink period of the optical module of the spotlight unit may be in proportion to the vehicle speed, and the number of blinks may be the same.

In the head lamp system according to the aspect of the present invention, the blink period and the number of blinks of the optical module of the spotlight unit may be in proportion to the vehicle speed.

In the head lamp system according to the aspect of the present invention, the blink period of the optical module of the spotlight unit may be constant in a low-speed section and/or in a high-speed section.

According to the head lamp system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, by sensing the position of the obstacle that is present in a front direction of the vehicle during the nighttime driving and making beams blink with respect to the irradiation region that corresponds to the sensed position, the driver can recognize the presence of the obstacle more efficiently.

Further, according to the head lamp system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, by changing the blink period of the beams irradiated onto the position in which the obstacle is present according to the vehicle speed, the driver can easily recognize the obstacle.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Hereinafter, a head lamp system according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring toFIG. 3, a head lamp system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a head lamp100, an infrared radiator200, an infrared camera300, a speed sensing means400, and a control unit500.

The head lamp100, as illustrated inFIGS. 3 and 4, includes a headlight110irradiating beams onto a predetermined region in a front direction of a vehicle at night, and a spotlight unit120installed on a side portion of the headlight110. The spotlight unit120includes a plurality of optical modules121to124(in this embodiment, four optical modules). The beams irradiated from the plurality of optical modules121to124, as illustrated inFIG. 5, have different irradiation regions in the front direction of the vehicle. If an obstacle is recognized in the front direction of the vehicle, the optical module blinks, which has the irradiation region that corresponds to the region in which the obstacle is present. Specifically, as illustrated inFIG. 5, if it is determined that an obstacle is present in irradiation region2, the optical module122that corresponds to the irradiation region2blinks.

As illustrated inFIG. 3, the infrared radiator200is installed in a front portion of the vehicle to radiate infrared rays. The radiated infrared rays are reflected by the obstacle that is present in front of the vehicle.

As illustrated inFIG. 3, the infrared camera300is installed in the front portion of the vehicle, and obtains image data through photographing the front side of the vehicle using the infrared rays radiated from the infrared rays.

The speed sensing means400is to sense the speed of the vehicle, and as illustrated inFIG. 3, may be a sensor that senses the revolutions of a vehicle wheel. Further, as the speed of the vehicle, data, which is stored in an ECU that is a central processing unit of the vehicle, may be used as it is.

The control unit500is an ECU that controls an electronic device of the vehicle. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the control unit500receives an input of image data of the front side of the vehicle that is obtained through the infrared camera300and vehicle speed data that is obtained from the speed sensing means400, and controls the blinking of the spotlight unit120of the head lamp100.

Specifically, the control unit500according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention analyzes the position of the obstacle that is present in the front direction of the vehicle through analysis of the image data that is obtained from the infrared camera300, and makes the optical module122(inFIG. 5) of the optical modules121to124of the spotlight unit120, which has the irradiation region that corresponds to the position, blink. That is, the control unit500repeats turn-on and turn-off of the corresponding optical module122. Since the beams are repeatedly turned on/off in the region in which the obstacle is present, the driver is visually evoked to pay more attention to the obstacle, and thus the visibility of the obstacle is heightened.

On the other hand, if the blink period of the optical module122is constantly set as shown inFIG. 6A, the blink period is decreased as the vehicle speed is increased. Due to this, the probability that the driver can confirm the obstacle may be rather lowered. Specifically, if the distance between the vehicle and the obstacle is constant and the blink period is constant, the optical module blinks 12 times per second in a low-speed section (for example, in a section where the vehicle speed is 30 km/h or less), blinks 6 times per second in a middle-speed section (for example, in a section in which the vehicle speed is 30 km/h to 90 km/h), and blinks 4 times per second in a high-speed section (for example, in a section in which the vehicle speed is 90 km/h or more). That is, if the vehicle speed is increased, as shown inFIG. 6B, the number of blinks is non-linearly decreased. Accordingly, if the blink period is set to be the same regardless of the vehicle speed, the driver can sufficiently recognize the obstacle in the case where the vehicle travels at a speed in the low-speed section in which the number of blinks is large. However, if the vehicle travels at a speed in the middle-speed section or in the high-speed section in which the number of blinks is small, the driver may not sufficiently recognize the obstacle.

According to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the optical module, which has the irradiation region that corresponds to the position in which the obstacle is present, blinks, and by changing the blink period in consideration of the vehicle speed measured by the speed sensing means400, the driver can sufficiently recognize the obstacle. Specifically, as illustrated inFIG. 7, the blink period is controlled to be increased in proportion to the speed of the vehicle in the low-speed section, in the middle-speed section, and in the high-speed section.

That is, as illustrated inFIG. 8A, if the relationship between the blink period and the vehicle speed is set to blink period=α speed (α is constant), the blink period is increased as the vehicle speed is increased, but the number of blinks becomes constant regardless of the vehicle speed. Further, as illustrated inFIG. 8B, if the relationship between the blink period and the vehicle speed is set to blink period=α speedβ(α and β are constant), both the blink period and the number of blinks are increased as the vehicle speed is increased. Accordingly, the driver can certainly recognize the obstacle even though the vehicle speed is increased.

Further, as illustrated inFIGS. 9A and 9B, it may be set that the blink period is constant in the low-speed section regardless of the vehicle speed, and the relationship between the blink period and the vehicle speed illustrated inFIGS. 8A and 8Bis applied to the middle-speed section and the high-speed section only. Since the decrease of the number of blinks according to the increase of the speed is not large even though the blink period is constant in the low-speed section, the driver can certainly recognize the obstacle in the low-speed section even without changing the blink period according to the vehicle speed.

Further, as illustrated inFIGS. 10A and 10B, it may be set that the blink period is constant in the high-speed section regardless of the vehicle speed, and the relationship between the blink period and the vehicle speed illustrated inFIGS. 8A and 8Bis applied to the low-speed section and the middle-speed section only. If the blink period is increased as the vehicle speed is increased in the high-speed section as illustrated inFIGS. 8A and 8B, the blink period becomes too short in the high-speed section, and this may cause the driver to feel dazzling or unpleasant. Accordingly, as illustrated inFIGS. 10A and 10B, by decreasing the number of blinks according to the increase of the vehicle speed in the high-speed section through making the blink period constant only in the high-speed section regardless of the vehicle speed, the driver is prevented from feeling dazzling or unpleasant.

Further, as illustrated inFIGS. 11A and 11B, it may be set that the blink period is constant in the low-speed section and in the high-speed section regardless of the vehicle speed, and the relationship between the blink period and the vehicle speed illustrated inFIGS. 8A and 8Bis applied to the middle-speed section only.

As described above, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, by sensing the position of the obstacle that is present in the front direction of the vehicle during the nighttime driving and making beams blink with respect to the irradiation region that corresponds to the sensed position, the driver can recognize the presence of the obstacle more efficiently.

Further, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, by changing the blink period of the beams irradiated onto the position in which the obstacle is present according to the vehicle speed, the driver can easily recognize the obstacle.