Patent ID: 8351648

Claim:
An apparatus for controlling a direction of a light axis of light to be radiated from headlights mounted on a vehicle, comprising: angle changing means for changing an angle of the light axis of the light to an angle commanded by a command; image capturing means for capturing images of a field of view in front of the vehicle and outputting captured images; taillight detecting means for using the captured images to detect taillights of a preceding vehicle which runs ahead of the vehicle provided with the apparatus; position setting means for setting an illumination target position based on a position of the detected taillights in the captured images, wherein the position setting means includes shifting means that shifts, by an offset amount which is changeable, the illumination target position down from the position of the detected taillights in each of the captured images in a vertical direction of the images; angle calculating means for calculating the angle of the light axis of the light so that the light axis is directed to the illumination target position; angle commanding means for providing the command to the angle changing means, the provided command depending on the angle calculated by the angle calculating means; and inter-vehicle distance acquiring means for acquiring an inter-vehicle distance between the vehicle provided with the apparatus and the preceding vehicle; and position changing means for changing the offset amount in the captured images depending on the inter-vehicle distance acquired.