Automatic adverse weather rear light system for motor vehicles

Details Automatic adverse weather rear light system for motor vehicles Automatic adverse weather rear light system for motor vehicles

2001-06-11

2003-04-22

Philogene, Haissa (Department: 2821)

Electric lamp and discharge devices: systems

Special application

Vehicle

C362S464000, C362S465000, C362S276000, C340S469000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06552492

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an automatic adverse weather rear light system and a corresponding control system for motor vehicles where the corresponding control system serves to detect a decrease in the current visibility conditions due to either adverse weather conditions, smoke, or dust, and further to automatically activate the adverse weather rear light system which is comprised of the adverse weather rear light source or light sources. Also, to avoid outshining either the brake lights or the turn signal/emergency flasher lights the adverse weather rear light system includes a provision to automatically increase the luminous level of these lights to a luminosity which is greater than the luminosity of the adverse weather rear light source or light sources.
The vehicle industry has, for years, primarily focused on increasing the conspicuity of the front of the vehicle with the addition of fog lights and daytime running lights while ignoring the rear of the vehicle which becomes inconspicuous as visibility decreases due to either adverse weather conditions, smoke, or dust. The current luminosity level of the vehicle rear light system is adequate during normal conditions however, the luminosity level is inadequate as visibility decreases due to either adverse weather, smoke, or dust. The fact that the current luminosity level fails to provide adequate conspicuity for the rear of the vehicle is substantiated by the number of rear end collisions, the number of vehicles involved, and the severity of these collisions as the visibility decreases due to either adverse weather conditions, smoke, or dust. It is the objective of the present invention, therefore, to increase the conspicuity of the rear of the vehicle as the visibility decreases, which in turn would significantly reduce the number of rear end collisions, and in such manner as to not outshine either the brake lights or the turn signal/emergency flasher lights, which could result either in an accident or irritate an approaching motorist and incite a road rage incident, which is increasing at an alarming rate.
The concept of a rear fog light system in conjunction with a control system has only recently been introduced in the United States, and only one of these systems submits an adjustable system that is dependent upon ambient light conditions (U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,035 issued to Eberspacher, Gauch, Haf, and Robel in January, 2000), The system further includes a fog tail light which may be turned off upon detection of an approaching vehicle by means of an electrochromic interior rear view mirror. However, such a system embodies several disadvantages. One disadvantage of this system is that it fails to consider the truck population which comprises a significant number of the motor vehicles on the road today, and of these trucks the majority have shells installed on the back which completely block the interior rear view mirror effecting such a system void. A second disadvantage is that this system fails to recognize the fact that tractor trucks, of the rapidly increasing transportation industry, do not provide for an interior rear view mirror which again would nullify such a system. Another disadvantage is that this fails to consider the sport utility and the van population which additionally comprises a significant number of the motor vehicles on the road and introduces a unique issue. It is common for the rear window of such vehicles to become soiled with spray and dirt from the roadways produced by the rear wheels during adverse weather, and the majority of these vehicles do not have rear windshield wipers. The result is that the spray and dirt obstructs the interior rear view mirror and therefore negates such a system. Additionally, during periods of decreased visibility due to adverse weather conditions the system is designed to turn off the rear fog light when a vehicle approaches. The action of where the rear fog light is initially at full luminosity and then extinguished as a vehicle approaches could easily be mistaken, by an approaching motorist, as the application and the release of the brakes and result in a rear end collision.
The rear fog light system and corresponding control system (U.S. Pat. No. 5,894,272 issued to Brassier and Rydel in April, 1999 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,267 issued to Brassier, Rydel, and Medjaoui in September, 1994). also embodies several disadvantages. One major disadvantage of this system is that the rear fog lights would outshine either the brake lights or the turn signal/emergency flasher lights and result in an accident since an approaching motorist would conceivably fail to observe that either the brakes have been applied, the vehicle is signaling a turn, or the vehicle is signaling an roadside emergency with the emergency flashers while parked along the roadway. Another disadvantage of this system is that the rear fog lights have no provisions to reduce the luminosity level between the hours of dusk to dawn such a system therefore could either blind or irritate an approaching motorist and result in either an accident or incite a road rage incident. An additional disadvantage of this system is that there is no provision for the automatic activation of the rear fog lights. Instead, the motor vehicle operator is required to manually activate the rear fog lights upon observing the low visibility warning light, and should the motor vehicle operator fail to observe the low visibility warning and activate the rear fog lights the risk of an accident would be significantly increased. Another disadvantage of these systems is that the operation only addresses limited visibility due to fog and ignores the limited visibility conditions resulting from rain, snow, hail, sleet, smoke, or dust.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an automatic adverse weather rear light system and a corresponding control system for motor vehicles where the corresponding control system serves to detect a decrease in the current visibility conditions due to either adverse weather conditions, smoke, or dust and, further to automatically activate the adverse weather rear light system which is comprised of the adverse weather rear light source or light sources. Also, to avoid outshining either the brake lights or the turn signal/emergency flasher lights the adverse weather rear light system further includes a provision to automatically increase the luminous level of these lights to a luminosity which is greater than the luminosity of the adverse weather rear light source or light sources.
In one preferred embodiment of the invention the adverse weather rear light system is comprised of a light source or light sources which are positioned such as to increase the conspicuity of the rear of the non-represented vehicle, and where the light source or light sources may be either a separate light source or light sources or an integral part of any light source or light sources of the vehicle. The adverse weather rear light system is further comprised of a control system which collects current environmental conditions: relative humidity, temperature, ambient light, and current visibility conditions where such a system is commercially available from SENTEC Corporation (U.S. Pat. No. 5,982,288 issued to Sawatari, Gaubis, and Chametski in November 1999). The control system further collects the current state of the vehicle: the state of the ignition switch, the state of the windshield wiper switch, the state of the brake pedal switch, the state of turn signal switch, and the state of the emergency flasher switch. The microcontroller unit serves to receive and combine the current environmental conditions with that of the current state of the vehicle to determine if the conditions are such as to warrant the automatic activation of the adverse weather rear light source or light sources and to automatically increase the luminous level of the brake lights and the turn signal/emergency flasher lights to a luminosity which is greater than the luminosity of the adverse weather rear light s

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