Patent ID: 7248010

Claim:
A wiper controller comprising: a sensor for detecting a waterdrop disposed on a windshield of a vehicle; a wiper disposed on the windshield for wiping the windshield; and control means for controlling operation of the wiper on the basis of amount of the waterdrop, wherein the control means monitors a waterdrop reflection caused by the waterdrop when the sensor detects the waterdrop disposed on the windshield, the waterdrop reflection is a diffuse reflection of light entered from an external light source into a compartment of the vehicle through the waterdrop and the windshield, and the control means operates the wiper with an intermittent wiping operation having a time interval in such a manner that the time interval in a case where the control means decides nonexistence of the waterdrop reflection is set to be longer than the time interval in a case where the control means decides existence of the waterdrop reflection, wherein the sensor is disposed in the compartment of the vehicle, the sensor is an imaging device for imaging a predetermined part of the windshield from an inside of the compartment of the vehicle, the control means determines existence or nonexistence of the waterdrop, the amount of the waterdrop and existence or nonexistence of the waterdrop reflection on the basis of an image signal of the windshield inputted from the imaging device, the control means determines existence or nonexistence of the waterdrop in such a manner that a binarization image of the waterdrop is compared with a master pattern of the waterdrop, the control means filters the image signal of the imaging device by a Laplacian filter so that an outline of the waterdrop is extracted, the control means converts the outline of the waterdrop to the binarization image of the waterdrop, and the control means preliminarily memorizes the master pattern of the waterdrop.