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Automatic-sensitivity-adjustment-for-electro-optic-mirror-and-headlight-activation-control

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Automatic sensitivity adjustment for electro-optic mirror and headlight activation control

Details

Inventors: Schierbeek, Kenneth L.; Dykhouse, Robert J.; Lynam, Niall R.;
Assignee: Donnelly Corporation (Holland, MI)
Primary Examiner: Dzerzynski; Paul M.
Assistant Examiner: Sikder; Mohammad Y.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Van Dyke, Gardner, Linn & Burkhart, LLP

A light-responsive vehicle control system is provided that is useful in the passenger compartment of a vehicle having a movable top, or cover, which may be opened to at least partially uncover the passenger compartment. The control system includes at least one control circuit which receives an input from the light sensor and produces an output to operate a device, such as an electro-optic mirror or the vehicle headlights, as a function of the light sensed by the light sensor and a sensitivity value. The control circuit is responsive to the position of the cover with respect to the passenger compartment to reduce the sensitivity level when the compartment is uncovered. The control circuit may filter a signal that is a function of light sensed by the light sensor according to a time-constant and be responsive to a reduction in the light level sensed by the light sensor to reduce the value of the time-constant. If the controlled device is the vehicle headlights, the headlights may be more rapidly actuated during an abrupt reduction in sensed light levels as may occur when entering a tunnel or the like.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention provides a light-responsive vehicle control which overcomes the difficulties of prior art light-responsive vehicle controls.
The present invention is especially useful with light-responsive vehicle controls which produce an electro-optic mirror drive signal in order to establish a partial reflectance level of the vehicle's mirror or mirrors.
The invention is also useful in light-responsive vehicle controls which control the activation state of the vehicle's headlights.
A light-responsive vehicle control provided according to the invention is useful with a vehicle having a passenger compartment and a cover which selectively covers at least a portion of the passenger compartment.
A light-responsive vehicle control, according to the invention, includes at least one light sensor within the passenger compartment and a control receiving an input from the light sensor and producing an output to operate a device.
This output may be a function at least of the light sensed by the light sensor and a sensitivity value.
According to an aspect of the invention, the control is responsive to the position of the cover with respect to the passenger compartment to adjust the sensitivity value.
Typically, the control reduces the sensitivity value in response to the cover being in a position uncovering the passenger compartment.
A vehicle headlight activation system according to another aspect of the invention is provided for activating a vehicle's headlights at low light conditions and deactivating the vehicle's headlights at high light conditions.
Such system according to this aspect of the invention includes at least one light sensor and a control which receives an input from the light sensor and produces an output to operate the vehicle's headlights according to a time-filtered signal that is a function of the sensed light.
The signal is filtered according to a time-constant in producing the output.
The control responds to a reduction in the light level sensed by the light sensor to reduce the value of the time-constant

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