Patent ID: 7710057

Claim:
A raindrop quantity sensing apparatus for measuring a quantity of raindrops on a windshield of a vehicle, on which a wiper blade of a wiper apparatus is reciprocally swung between a stop position and a return position in a wiping range of the windshield by a drive force generated from a drive source of the wiper apparatus, which is driven every time a drive command signal is supplied to the drive source, the raindrop quantity sensing apparatus comprising: a raindrop sensor that outputs a measurement signal, which corresponds to the quantity of raindrops in a predetermined sensing range in the wiping range on the windshield; a prohibited time period setting means for setting a time period, during which the wiper blade is predicted to pass through the predetermined sensing range, as a raindrop quantity sensing prohibited time period based on an elapsed time from a time point of supplying the drive command signal to the drive source; and a determining means for determining the quantity of raindrops on the windshield based on the measurement signal outputted from the raindrop sensor in a raindrop quantity sensing execution time period, which is outside of the raindrop quantity sensing prohibited time period.