Control system to automatically control vehicle headlamps

Abstract

An automatic vehicle headlamp dimming system which includes an optical system and an imaging processing system. The optical system is configured to discriminate between headlamps and tail lamps, and focus the light rays from the headlamps and tail lamps on different portions of a pixel sensor array. The optical system as well as the image processing system provides for relatively increased discrimination of headlamps and tail lamps of other vehicles and also enables the high beam headlamps of the control vehicle to be controlled as a function of the distance as well as horizontal angular position of other vehicles relative to the controlled vehicle.

1 . A control system for automatically controlling the state of the head lamps of a controlled vehicle, the control system comprising: 
 an optical system for imaging external sources of light within a predetermined field of view, the optical system including an image array sensor and two or more lenses configured to image said predetermined field of view onto two or more corresponding portions of said array; and    an image processing system for processing images from said optical system and providing a control signal for controlling the head lamps as a function of the relative output of the pixels imaging said external sources of light.    
   
   
       2 . The control system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein said optical system is fixed relative to said controlled vehicle.  
   
   
       3 . The control system as recited in  claim 1 , further including means for filtering the light through said predetermined lenses.  
   
   
       4 . The control system as recited in  claim 3 , wherein said filtering means includes a filter dye for said one or more lenses.  
   
   
       5 . The control system as recited in  claim 1 , having a first lens and a second lens.