PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-11906124-B2
Application Number: US-202217721147-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Multiband adjustable lights

Abstract:
A system may have lights. The lights may emit visible and infrared light. Infrared light may be used to illuminate objects that are monitored using infrared image sensors or other infrared sensors. Visible light may be used to illuminate objects that are viewed by users and which may be monitored using sensors. The lights may be adjustable. An adjustable light may have a light source that contains an infrared light-emitting device such as an infrared light-emitting diode and a visible light-emitting device such as a visible light-emitting diode. A reflector may reflect light from the light source towards a lens. An adjustable light-blocking device may be located between the reflector and the lens. The light-blocking device may allow infrared light to pass unimpeded while adjusting visible light passing to the lens.

Claims:
What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A vehicle light, comprising:
 a light source having an infrared light-emitting device and a visible light-emitting device and configured to emit light at visible and infrared wavelengths, wherein the light source comprises an optical combiner having a first arm with a first face configured to receive infrared light and having a second arm with a second face configured to receive visible light; and 
 an adjustable light blocker having a movable member with a visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing thin-film interference filter. 
 
     
     
       2. The vehicle light defined in  claim 1  wherein the adjustable light blocker has a positioner configured to move the movable member between:
 a low-beam position in which first infrared light rays in the emitted light pass by the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing thin-film interference filter and second infrared light rays in the emitted light pass through the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing thin-film interference filter and in which first visible light rays in the emitted light pass by the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing thin-film interference filter and second visible light rays in the emitted light are blocked by the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing thin-film interference filter; and 
 a high-beam position in which the first infrared light rays in the emitted light pass by the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing thin-film interference filter and the second infrared light rays in the emitted light pass by the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing thin-film interference filter and in which the first visible light rays in the emitted light pass by the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing thin-film interference filter and the second visible light rays in the emitted light pass by the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing thin-film interference filter. 
 
     
     
       3. The vehicle light defined in  claim 2  wherein the infrared light-emitting device comprises an infrared light-emitting diode configured to produce the first and second infrared light rays and wherein the visible light-emitting device comprises a visible light-emitting diode configured to produce the first and second visible light rays. 
     
     
       4. The vehicle light defined in  claim 3  where the first face of the optical combiner is configured to receive the first and second infrared light rays and the second face of the optical combiner is configured to receive the first and second visible light rays. 
     
     
       5. The vehicle light defined in  claim 4  wherein the optical combiner has a third face from which the first and second infrared light rays and the first and second visible light rays are emitted. 
     
     
       6. The vehicle light defined in  claim 1  wherein the optical combiner has transparent material configured to receive infrared light from the infrared light-emitting device and configured to receive visible light from the visible light-emitting device. 
     
     
       7. The vehicle light defined in  claim 1  wherein the adjustable light blocker comprises an adjustable shutter and wherein the movable member comprises a movable shutter member having a substrate with a thin-film interference filter coating that blocks visible light and passes near-infrared light. 
     
     
       8. The vehicle light defined in  claim 1  further comprising:
 a lens; and 
 a reflector configured to reflect the emitted light towards the lens. 
 
     
     
       9. A vehicle, comprising:
 a vehicle body; 
 an adjustable headlight on the vehicle body that comprises
 a light source configured to emit infrared light and visible light, 
 an adjustable component, 
 a reflector, 
 an optical combiner configured to mix the infrared and visible light and to emit mixed light toward the reflector, and 
 a lens, wherein the optical combiner and the light source are interposed between the lens and the reflector; and 
 
 control circuitry configured to:
 adjust the adjustable component to operate the adjustable headlight in:
 a first mode in which the adjustable headlight emits the infrared light with a first pattern and in which the adjustable headlight emits the visible light with a second pattern; and 
 a second mode in which the adjustable headlight emits the infrared light with the first pattern and in which the adjustable headlight emits the visible light with a third pattern that is different than the second pattern. 
 
 
 
     
     
       10. The vehicle defined in  claim 9  wherein the adjustable component comprises an adjustable light blocker. 
     
     
       11. The vehicle defined in  claim 10  wherein the adjustable light blocker has a movable light filter. 
     
     
       12. The vehicle defined in  claim 11  wherein the adjustable light blocker has an electrically adjustable positioner configured to move the movable light filter between a first position in the first mode and a second position in the second mode. 
     
     
       13. The vehicle defined in  claim 12  wherein the movable light filter comprises a thin-film interference filter configured to block visible wavelengths and pass infrared wavelengths. 
     
     
       14. The vehicle defined in  claim 9  wherein the second pattern comprises a low-beam visible light pattern and wherein the third pattern comprises a high-beam visible light pattern. 
     
     
       15. The vehicle defined in  claim 14  wherein the first pattern comprises a high-beam infrared light pattern. 
     
     
       16. The vehicle defined in  claim 15  further comprising an infrared image sensor configured to capture an infrared image of an object illuminated by the emitted infrared light of the high-beam infrared light pattern. 
     
     
       17. The vehicle defined in  claim 9  further comprising an infrared sensor configured to capture an infrared image of an object illuminated by the emitted infrared light. 
     
     
       18. A vehicle headlight, comprising:
 an infrared light-emitting diode configured to produce infrared light; 
 a visible light-emitting diode configured to produce visible light; 
 a reflector; 
 an optical combiner configured to mix the infrared and visible light and configured to emit the mixed infrared and visible light from an end face towards the reflector; 
 a lens; and 
 an adjustable light blocker between the reflector and the lens, wherein the adjustable light blocker comprises a spectral filter. 
 
     
     
       19. The vehicle headlight defined in  claim 18  wherein spectral filter comprises a visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing filter and wherein the adjustable light blocker comprises a positioner configured to move the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing filter. 
     
     
       20. The vehicle headlight defined in  claim 19  wherein the positioner is configured to:
 in a first mode, place the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing filter in a first position in which a high-beam pattern of visible light is emitted from the lens; and 
 in a second mode, place the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing filter in a second position in which a low-beam pattern of visible light is emitted from the lens. 
 
     
     
       21. The vehicle headlight defined in  claim 20  wherein the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing filter is configured to:
 in the first mode, allow infrared light rays from the emitted mixed infrared and visible light to pass by the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing filter from the reflector to the lens; and 
 in the second mode, allow the infrared light rays from the emitted mixed infrared and visible light to pass through the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-passing filter from the reflector to the lens. 
 
     
     
       22. The vehicle defined in  claim 18  wherein the optical combiner comprises a transparent member with a first arm that receives the infrared light and a second arm that receives the visible light.

Description:
This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application No. 63/208,316, filed Jun. 8, 2021, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
    
    
     FIELD 
     This relates generally to systems such as vehicles, and, more particularly, vehicles that have lights. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Automobiles and other vehicles have lights such as headlights. To accommodate different driving conditions, headlights are sometimes provided with low beam and high beam settings. 
     SUMMARY 
     A vehicle may have lights such as headlights. The lights may be multiband lights that emit both visible and infrared light. During vehicle operation, infrared light from the lights may be used to illuminate objects that are monitored using infrared image sensors or other infrared sensors. For example, an autonomous driving system in the vehicle may use infrared sensor information in performing autonomous driving operations. Visible light from the lights is used to illuminate objects for viewing by vehicle occupants and to support the operation of visible light sensors. 
     Vehicle lights may be adjustable. For example, headlights may be placed in a high-beam mode in which visible light is emitted in a high-beam pattern and may be placed in a low-beam mode in which visible light is emitted in a low-beam pattern. 
     An adjustable light may have a light source that contains an infrared light-emitting device such as an infrared light-emitting diode and a visible light-emitting device such as a visible light-emitting diode. An optical combiner may be used to mix infrared light from the infrared light-emitting device with visible light from the visible light-emitting device. This mixed infrared and visible light may be reflected towards a lens in the adjustable light using a reflector. 
     To adjust the pattern of visible light emitted from the light, the light may have an adjustable light-blocking device. The adjustable light-blocking device may be located between the reflector and the lens. The light-blocking device may be used to adjust which visible light rays pass from the reflector to the lens and thereby adjust the pattern of emitted visible light. At the same time, the adjustable light-blocking device may allow infrared light to pass unimpeded regardless of which visible light emission pattern has been selected. In this way, satisfactory infrared illumination may be provided for supporting the operation of sensors such as infrared image sensors. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    is a top view of an illustrative vehicle in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG.  2    is a side view of an illustrative adjustable headlight in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG.  3    is a top view of an illustrative light source for an adjustable headlight in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG.  4    is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-transmitting filter for a shutter member in an adjustable light-blocking device in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG.  5    is a graph in which light transmission has been plotted as a function of wavelength for an illustrative filter of the type shown in  FIG.  4    in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG.  6    is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative adjustable headlight in accordance with an embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     A system such as a vehicle or other system may have components that emit light such as headlights and other lights. Headlights may be used to provide visible light illumination of a roadway. This allows vehicle occupants to view the roadway at night and in other low ambient lighting conditions such as at dawn or dusk, when weather reduces ambient light, or when a vehicle is traveling through a dark tunnel. Visible illumination may also be used to assist autonomous driving systems. If desired, an autonomous driving system may use infrared image data and other data from infrared sensors. For example, infrared illumination may help light up a roadway at infrared wavelengths so that an infrared image sensor associated with an autonomous driving system can monitor the roadway. In an illustrative arrangement, a headlight may be operated in high-beam and low-beam modes in which visible light illumination is adjusted while simultaneously providing infrared light illumination. The infrared light illumination may be provided in a pattern that does not diminish in coverage as the headlight is switched between the high-beam and low-beam modes. 
       FIG.  1    is a top view of a portion of an illustrative vehicle. In the example of  FIG.  1   , vehicle  10  is the type of vehicle that may carry passengers (e.g., an automobile, truck, or other automotive vehicle). Configurations in which vehicle  10  is a robot (e.g., an autonomous robot) or other vehicle that does not carry human passengers may also be used. Vehicles such as automobiles may sometimes be described herein as an example. As shown in  FIG.  1   , vehicle  10  may be operated on roads such as roadway  14 . 
     Vehicle  10  may be manually driven (e.g., by a human driver), may be operated via remote control, and/or may be autonomously operated (e.g., by an autonomous driving system or other autonomous propulsion system). Using vehicle sensors such as lidar, radar, visible and/or infrared cameras (e.g., two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional cameras), proximity (distance) sensors, and/or other sensors, an autonomous driving system and/or driver-assistance system in vehicle  10  may perform automatic braking, steering, and/or other operations to help avoid undesired collisions with pedestrians, inanimate objects, and/or other external structures such as illustrative obstacle  26  on roadway  14 . 
     Vehicle  10  may include a body such as body  12 . Body  12  may include vehicle structures such as body panels formed from metal and/or other materials, may include doors, a hood, a trunk, fenders, a chassis to which wheels are mounted, a roof, etc. Windows may be formed in doors  18  (e.g., on the sides of vehicle body  12 , on the roof of vehicle  10 , and/or in other portions of vehicle  10 ). Windows, doors  18 , and other portions of body  12  may separate the interior of vehicle  10  from the exterior environment that is surrounding vehicle  10 . Doors  18  may be opened and closed to allow people to enter and exit vehicle  10 . Seats and other structures may be formed in the interior of vehicle body  12 . 
     Vehicle  10  may have automotive lighting such as one or more headlights (sometimes referred to as headlamps), driving lights, fog lights, daytime running lights, turn signals, brake lights, and/or other lights. As shown in  FIG.  1   , for example, vehicle  10  may have lights such as lights  16 . In general, lights  16  may be mounted on front F of vehicle  10 , on rear R of vehicle  10 , on left and/or right sides W of vehicle  10 , and/or other portions of body  12 . In an illustrative configuration, which may sometimes be described herein as an example, lights  16  are headlights and are mounted to front F of body  12 . There may be, as an example, left and right headlights  16  located respectively on the left and right of vehicle  10  to provide illumination  20  in the forward direction (e.g., in the +Y direction in which vehicle  10  moves when driven forward in the example of  FIG.  1   ). By shining headlights  16  on roadway  14  in front of vehicle  10 , vehicle  10  may illuminate roadway  14  and obstacles on roadway  14  such as obstacle  26 . 
     Vehicle  10  may have components  24 . Components  24  may include propulsion and steering systems (e.g., manually adjustable driving systems and/or autonomous driving systems having wheels coupled to body  12 , steering controls, one or more motors for driving the wheels, etc.), and other vehicle systems. Components  24  may include control circuitry and input-output devices. Control circuitry in components  24  may be configured to run an autonomous driving application, a navigation application (e.g., an application for displaying maps on a display), and software for controlling vehicle climate control devices, lighting, media playback, window movement, door operations, sensor operations, and/or other vehicle operations. For example, the control system may form part of an autonomous driving system that drives vehicle  10  on roadways such as roadway  14  autonomously using data such as sensor data. The control circuitry may include processing circuitry and storage and may be configured to perform operations in vehicle  10  using hardware (e.g., dedicated hardware or circuitry), firmware and/or software. Software code for performing operations in vehicle  10  and other data is stored on non-transitory computer readable storage media (e.g., tangible computer readable storage media) in the control circuitry. The software code may sometimes be referred to as software, data, program instructions, computer instructions, instructions, or code. The non-transitory computer readable storage media may include non-volatile memory such as non-volatile random-access memory, one or more hard drives (e.g., magnetic drives or solid state drives), one or more removable flash drives or other removable media, or other storage. Software stored on the non-transitory computer readable storage media may be executed on the processing circuitry of components  24 . The processing circuitry may include application-specific integrated circuits with processing circuitry, one or more microprocessors, a central processing unit (CPU) or other processing circuitry. 
     The input-output devices of components  24  may include displays, sensors, buttons, light-emitting diodes and other light-emitting devices, haptic devices, speakers, and/or other devices for gathering environmental measurements, information on vehicle operations, and/or user input and for providing output. The sensors in components  24  may include ambient light sensors, touch sensors, force sensors, proximity sensors, optical sensors such as cameras operating at visible, infrared, and/or ultraviolet wavelengths (e.g., fisheye cameras, two-dimensional cameras, three-dimensional cameras, and/or other cameras), capacitive sensors, resistive sensors, ultrasonic sensors (e.g., ultrasonic distance sensors), microphones, radio-frequency sensors such as radar sensors, lidar (light detection and ranging) sensors, door open/close sensors, seat pressure sensors and other vehicle occupant sensors, window sensors, position sensors for monitoring location, orientation, and movement, speedometers, satellite positioning system sensors, and/or other sensors. Output devices in components  24  may be used to provide vehicle occupants and others with haptic output, audio output, visual output (e.g., displayed content, light, etc.), and/or other suitable output. 
     During operation, the control circuitry of components  24  may gather information from sensors and/or other input-output devices such as lidar data, camera data (images), radar data, and/or other sensor data. Cameras, touch sensors, physical controls, and other input devices may be used to gather user input. Using wireless communications with vehicle  10 , remote data sources may provide the control circuitry of components  24  with database information. Displays, speakers, and other output devices may be used to provide users with content such as interactive on-screen menu options and audio. A user may interact with this interactive content by supplying touch input to a touch sensor in a display and/or by providing user input with other input devices. If desired, the control circuitry of vehicle  10  may use sensor data, user input, information from remote databases, and/or other information in providing a driver with driver assistance information (e.g., information on nearby obstacles on a roadway and/or other environment surrounding vehicle  10 ) and/or in autonomously driving vehicle  10 . 
     Components  24  may include sensors such as forward-facing sensors  24 F (e.g., sensors that are directed in the +Y direction of  FIG.  1    to detect structures in front of vehicle  10  such as obstacle  26  and roadway  14 ) and may include sensors facing in other directions. Sensors  24 F and/or other sensors in vehicle  10  may include lidar, radar, visible and/or infrared cameras (e.g., two-dimensional image sensors and/or three-dimensional image sensors operating using structured light, binocular vision, time-of-flight, and/or other three-dimensional imaging arrangements), and/or may have other sensors. 
     To ensure that roadway  14  and obstacles such as obstacle  26  are sufficiently well illuminated to be visible to a user in vehicle  10  and to be visible to visible-light image sensors in sensors  26 F, headlights  16  may produce visible light illumination. To help ensure that infrared image sensors in forward-facing sensors  24 F receive sufficient reflected infrared light from the illuminated structures in front of vehicle  10 , headlights  16  may also produce infrared illumination. 
     Visible light from headlights  16  can distract drivers and others in oncoming traffic, so it may be desirable to provide headlights  16  with the ability to operate in a visible-light high-beam mode in which visible light illumination from headlights  16  is provided over a relatively large area (e.g., a high-beam pattern that encompasses both objects that are far in front of vehicle  10  and objects that are closer to vehicle  10 ) and in a visible-light low-beam mode in which visible light illumination is provided over a reduced area (e.g., a low-beam pattern that is directed downward towards roadway  14  directly in front of vehicle  10 ). When a driver or vehicle system in vehicle  10  detects oncoming traffic, the headlights may be placed in the low-beam mode to avoid directing excessive light towards the oncoming traffic. When no oncoming traffic is present, the headlights may be adjusted to operate in the high-beam mode to increase the area over which illumination is provided. 
     Infrared illumination is not visible to oncoming traffic, so infrared light may be provided by headlights  16  over a wide (e.g., high-beam) pattern regardless of the visible light operating mode of headlights  16 . In this way, infrared image sensors in forward-facing sensors  26 F may be provided with satisfactory illumination even when headlights  16  have been adjusted to produce visible light in a low-beam pattern. Regardless of whether headlights  16  are configured to produce visible high-beam light or visible low-beam light, the infrared light can have a high-beam pattern to that illuminates roadway  14  and external objects such as obstruction  26 . High-beam infrared light may be directed towards oncoming traffic, but will not disturb the occupants of oncoming vehicles, because this light is invisible to vehicle occupants. 
       FIG.  2    is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative adjustable headlight for vehicle  10 . Vehicle  10  may have any suitable number of headlights (e.g., at least one, at least two, at least three, etc.). In an illustrative arrangement, vehicle  10  has left and right headlights  16  on front F of vehicle  10 , as described in connection with  FIG.  1   . As shown in  FIG.  2   , headlight  16  may include headlight housing  30  and headlight lens  32 . Housing  30  may include support structures and enclosure structures for supporting the components of headlight  16 . These structures may facilitate mounting of headlight  16  to body  12 . Housing  30  may include polymer, metal, carbon-fiber composites and other fiber composites, glass, ceramic, other materials, and/or combinations of these materials. Lens  32  may include polymer, glass, transparent ceramic, and/or other materials that are transparent to visible light and infrared light (e.g., near infrared light). Lens  32  may be formed from one or more lens elements and may be used to help collimate light  34  and direct light  34  from headlight  16  in desired directions (e.g., to produce illumination such as illumination  20  of  FIG.  1   ). 
     Light  34  may include visible light (e.g., light from 400 nm to 750 nm) and infrared light (e.g., near infrared light at one or more wavelengths from 800 to 2500 nm or other suitable infrared light). Headlight  16  may be operated in a high beam mode and a low beam mode (as examples). In the high beam mode, emitted light  34  includes light  36  that is directed forward horizontally (along the +Y axis of  FIG.  2   ) as well as light  38  that is angled down slighting from the +Y axis). In the low beam mode, some of the forward-directed light (e.g., light  36 ) is suppressed, so that only downwardly angled light such as light  38  is emitted. 
     Headlight  16  includes a light source such as light source  40 . Light source  40  emits visible and infrared light  42 . Light  42  may be reflected in forwards direction +Y by reflector  56  to produce reflected light  44 . Reflector  56 , which may be formed from metal, polymer, glass, and/or other materials, may have a parabolic profile or other curved cross-sectional profile (as an example). Metal coatings, dielectric thin-film coatings, and/or other coatings may be provided on reflector  56  to enhance reflectivity at visible and infrared wavelengths. 
     Reflected light  44  from reflector  56  may be controlled using an adjustable component such as adjustable light blocker  46 . Light blocker  46  may be formed from an electrically adjustable light modulator layer, a physically adjusted shutter (e.g., a shutter that slides, rotates, and/or is otherwise moved by a positioner in a physical light-blocking device), or other device that can be electrically adjusted by control signals from control circuitry in components  24 . 
     Adjustable light blocker  46  of  FIG.  2    has a fixed shutter portion such as static shutter member  48  and a movable shutter portion such as movable shutter member  52 . Member  52  may be moved relative to member  48  (e.g., in direction  54 ) using positioner  50 . Positioner  50  may be electrically adjustable positioner such as a motor, solenoid, and/or other actuator that moves member  52  in response to commands from control circuitry in components  24 . For example, positioner  50  may have a hinge and an actuator that rotates member  52  about a hinge axis associated with the hinge. 
     The control circuitry in components  24  can adjust light blocker  46  to adjust the visible component of light  44  that passes through lens  32 . In a first mode (e.g., a low-beam mode), shutter member  52  is positioned as shown in  FIG.  2    (e.g., so that member  52  lies in the X-Z plane). In this first mode, rays of light  44  at visible wavelengths are partially blocked by shutter member  52 . As a result, at visible wavelengths, low-beam light  38  is present and high-beam light  36  is blocked and is not present. This visible light low-beam pattern may be used when vehicle  10  is facing oncoming traffic. In a second mode (e.g., a high-beam mode), shutter member  52  is rotated in direction  54  about an axis of rotation associated with positioner  50 . When shutter member  52  is moved downwards in this way, more of the rays of reflected light  44  are allowed to pass blocker  46 . As a result, at visible wavelengths, a high-beam pattern of emitted light is present (e.g., high-beam light that includes both light  36  and light  38  is emitted). This visible high-beam pattern may be used when vehicle  10  is not facing oncoming traffic. 
     To assist infrared light sensors in vehicle  10 , infrared light from light source  40  may be emitted by headlight  16  in both the first and second modes. Member  52  may be configured to pass infrared light (e.g., near infrared light) and to block visible light. Accordingly, the position of member  52  may be adjusted to adjust the visible light emission from headlight  16  without affecting the infrared light emission from headlight  16 . Because member  52  is transparent at infrared wavelengths, emitted light  34  may include both horizontal light  36  and downwardly angled light  38  at infrared wavelengths regardless of the position of member  52  (e.g., infrared light may be emitted in a high-beam pattern in both the first and second modes of operation). This allows vehicle  10  to provide sufficient infrared illumination in front of vehicle  10  for infrared sensors in vehicle  10  to operate satisfactorily. 
     An illustrative light source for headlight  16  is shown in  FIG.  3   . As shown in  FIG.  3   , light source  40  may include a source of infrared light such as infrared light source  60 A and a source of visible light such as visible light source  60 B. Light sources  60 A and/or  60 B may be formed from lamps, light-emitting diodes, lasers, or other light-emitting devices. As an example, light source  60 A may include one or more near-infrared light-emitting diodes and light source  60 B may include one or more visible (e.g., white light) light-emitting diodes. Optical combiner  62  may be formed from glass, transparent polymer, transparent ceramic, or other material transparent to visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Combiner  62  may have a first arm with a first face that receives infrared light from infrared light  42 A source  60 A and may have a second arm with a second face that receives visible light  42 A from visible light source  42 B. The two arms of combiner  62  may be joined together so that light  42 A and light  42 B mix and are emitted together from a third face as mixed emitted light  42 . 
     The surfaces of combiner  62  may be provided with cladding material (e.g., transparent polymer or other dielectric material with a lower refractive index than the refractive index of the core structures of combiner  62 ), may be provided with a reflective coating such as a metal coating or dielectric mirror coating, and/or may be provided with other structures that help confine light from light sources  60 A and  60 B within combiner  62 . During operation, light from sources  60 A and  60 B propagates along the lengths of the arms of combiner  62  (e.g., this light may be guided internally in accordance with the principal of total internal reflection and/or due to reflections from metal surface coatings or other optical confinement structures). The arms of combiner  62  may be cylindrical or may have other suitable shapes (e.g., elongated shapes with circular cross sections, rectangular cross sections, etc.). The entrance faces of combiner  62  from which the arms of combiner  62  receive light from sources  60 A and  60  may be circular, may be rectangular, or may have other suitable shapes. The exit face of combiner  62  from which the mixed infrared and visible light of source  40  is emitted may be circular, rectangular, and/or may have other suitable shapes. 
       FIG.  4    is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative movable member for adjustable light blocker  46 . As shown in  FIG.  4   , member  52  may have a substrate such as substrate  52 A and a spectral filter such as light filter  52 B. Filter  52 B may be formed from a visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light-transmitting coating on substrate  52 A. In an illustrative configuration, filter  52 B may include a stack of thin-film layers  64  that form a thin-film interference filter. Layers  64  may be, for example, dielectric thin-film layers (e.g., layers of polymer and/or inorganic dielectric such as metal oxides, silicon oxide, silicon nitride, and/or other inorganic dielectric materials). The refractive indices of layers  64  may alternate between high and low values. The values of the refractive indices of layers  64  and the thicknesses of layers  64  may be configured to form a thin-film interference filter structure that provides filter  52 B with desired wavelength-dependent light transmission spectrum such as the visible-light-blocking-and-infrared-light transmitting spectrum of  FIG.  5   . 
     In  FIG.  5   , light transmission T for filter  52 B has been plotted as a function of wavelength. As shown in  FIG.  5   , filter  52 B may block visible light VIS (e.g., T may be less than 20%, less than 5%, less than 1%, or other low transmission value for visible light wavelengths) and may pass near-infrared light IR (e.g., T may be at least 80%, at least 95%, at least 99%, or other suitable high transmission value for infrared light wavelengths such as near-infrared wavelengths). 
       FIG.  6    is a cross-sectional side view of headlight  16  emitting light  34 .  FIG.  6    shows how some of light  42  from light source  40  (e.g., the light of rays  44 - 1 ) passes by adjustable light blocker  46  at both visible and infrared wavelengths after reflecting from reflector  56 . Light rays  44 - 1  are not blocked by member  52  and therefore form low-beam light that is always emitted from headlight  16  when headlight  16  is active, regardless of the position of movable shutter member  52 . Some of light  42  (e.g., the light of rays  44 - 2 ) is reflected from reflector  56  towards member  52  of adjustable light blocker  46 . At infrared wavelengths, this light will either pass through member  52  (when member  52  is in the visible-light-blocking position shown in  FIG.  6   ) or will pass by member  52  (when member  52  has been rotated out of the way by positioner  50  to rotated position  52 R). At visible light wavelengths, light rays  44 - 2  will either pass member  52  (when member  52  has been rotated out of the way by positioner  50  to rotated position  52 R) or will be blocked by member  52  (when member  52  is in the vertically extending visible-light-blocking position shown in  FIG.  6   ). 
     Accordingly, infrared light will always be emitted widely (e.g., in a high-beam pattern) by headlight  16 , whereas visible light will be emitted in either a low-beam pattern or a high-beam pattern depending on the state of light blocker  46 . The low-beam visible light pattern emitted by headlight  16  in the low-beam mode of headlight  16  may be used to accommodate oncoming traffic. The high-beam visible light pattern emitted by headlight  16  in the high-beam mode may be used to enhance visible light illumination for occupants of vehicle  10  when oncoming traffic is absent (and may provide enhanced visible light illumination for visible light sensors in vehicle  10 ). The high-beam infrared light that is emitted in both of these operating modes may be used to help illuminate external objects for infrared cameras or other infrared sensors in vehicle  10 . For example, high-beam infrared light may be used to illuminate objects so that infrared cameras and/or other infrared sensors in vehicle  10  can gather infrared images and/or other infrared sensor readings on the external environment surrounding vehicle  10 . Vehicle  10  may use this infrared data in operating vehicle  10  (e.g., in operating an autonomous driving system for vehicle  10  and/or for providing driver assistance features for vehicle  10  such as proximity warnings. 
     Although sometimes described herein in the context of fixed headlight configurations, headlights  16  may be provided with positioners to steer housing  30  and thereby steer illumination  20 , may be provided with adjustable sets of light-emitting diodes or other light-emitting devices that are configured to produce different patterns of illumination when different subsets of the devices are selectively activated, and/or may be provided with other structures that allow illumination  20  to be steered (e.g., left and right, up and down, etc.), and/or to be otherwise adjusted to form desired light patterns that are aimed in desired directions (e.g., headlights  16  may be adaptive headlights). 
     The foregoing is merely illustrative and various modifications can be made to the described embodiments. The foregoing embodiments may be implemented individually or in any combination.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20220414
Publication Date: 20240220
Grant Date: 20240220
Priority Date: 20210608
Inventors: TANG, XIAOFENG
CHILD, CHRISTOPHER P
MAZUIR, Clarisse
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "F21S41/683", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/13", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/27", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/285", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/32", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/43", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/635", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/13", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/683", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/683", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/635", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/27", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/43", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/285", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/32", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/13", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "F21S41/635", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 81928062