Patent ID: 8224533

Claim:
An auto lighting system that turns on or off automotive lights in accordance with a brightness ahead of a vehicle, the auto lighting system comprising: imaging means for capturing an image of a road ahead of the vehicle said imaging means including brightness recognition means for recognizing a brightness ahead of the vehicle based on the image; and lighting control means for turning the lights on or off based on brightness, recognized recognition means, in a brightness judgment area of the image captured with the imaging means; brightness judgment area setting means for setting the brightness judgment area in the captured image based on at least one of a driving condition of the vehicle and an environmental condition of the vehicle; brightness calculation means for calculating a brightness of the brightness judgment area set by the brightness judgment area setting means; first information collection means for collecting vehicle information concerning a vehicle driving condition, wherein the brightness judgment area setting means sets the brightness judgment area based on the vehicle information collected by the first information collection means; and second information collection means for collecting information on an environmental condition of the vehicle, wherein the brightness judgment area setting means sets the brightness judgment area based on the information on the environmental condition of the vehicle collected by the second information collection means.