Electric lamp and discharge devices: systems – Special application – Vehicle
Patent
1996-11-22
1998-11-03
Pascal, Robert J.
Electric lamp and discharge devices: systems
Special application
Vehicle
315 84, 307 108, B60Q 102
Patent
active
058313893
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling an automotive room lamp.
BACKGROUND ART
A room lamp of an automobile is provided at or near the center of the roof in the automobile interior and is configured to be switched on and off in response to the operation of a manual switch or to the opening and closing of a door of the automobile. When the door is opened, the room lamp is switched from off usually to full luminance (see FIG. 1). The room lamp lights up if a door is incompletely closed, to indicate to the driver and passengers that the door is not fully closed.
Extinction control of the room lamp is carried out in various ways. For example, in some extinction control methods, the room lamp is instantly turned off when a predetermined period of time has elapsed from the moment at which a vehicle door was closed, as indicated by line A in FIG. 1. Another method gradually decreases the luminance of the room lamp from the moment at which the door has been closed or at which a predetermined time period has elapsed since the closing of the door, as indicated by line B or C in FIG. 1, until the room lamp is turned off. In still another method, the luminance of the room lamp is decreased by one step from full luminance at the moment at which the door is closed, and is then gradually decreased until the room lamp goes off, as indicated by line D in FIG. 1.
With any of these conventional room lamp control methods, however, the room lamp is kept switched off during a period from the moment when the driver pulls out the ignition key from the ignition switch to the moment when the driver or a passenger opens a door to get out of the car. Therefore, the driver and passengers must inconveniently operate inside lock knobs and inside handles to unlock and open doors in the dark.
On the occasion that the driver or a passenger gets out of the car, taking his/her belongings such as a bag or papers which were put on a passenger seat or the like, he or she is required to open the door to turn on the room lamp and then check and take the belongings before getting out of the car. Especially in rain or other inclement weather, it is necessary for the driver or the passenger to turn on the room lamp by turning on a manual switch, check and take the belongings, turn off the room lamp by turning off the manual switch, and then open the door to get out of the car. In this manner, heretofore, the operation from the extraction of the ignition key to getting out of the car not only is troublesome but also takes much time.
In addition, all of the above-described room lamp control methods are inadequate to provide a sense of security for the driver and the passengers to confirm that doors have been surely closed at the time of getting out of the car. According to the control methods of the types indicated by lines A and B in FIG. 1, the luminance of the room lamp does not change at the moment when an open door is closed. Only after a predetermined time period has elapsed since the closing of a door, the room lamp goes off or the luminance of the room lamp begins to decrease. Therefore, at the time of closing a door, there remains a sense of anxiety about the possibility of an incomplete door closing. With the control method of the type indicated by line C in FIG. 1, there still remains a similar sense of anxiety though not so much as the types indicated by lines A and B. With the control method of the type indicated by line D in FIG. 1, the luminance of the room lamp decreases by one step from the full luminance when an open door is closed, so that the aforementioned sense of anxiety is less. However, when the luminance of the room lamp decreases by one step, the driver and passengers sometimes feel that the room lamp is just flickering.
Moreover, if an off room lamp is lit up instantly at full luminance when a door is opened, occupants lack a sense of high quality, a sense of hospitality, a sense of controlled lighting, etc. For this reason, as well as the foregoing reasons, it is desirab
REFERENCES:
patent: 4866345 (1989-09-01), Kataoka
patent: 5604407 (1997-02-01), Andres et al.
Kawashima Naoki
Kurachi Tamotsu
Miyake Koichi
Murase Yoshihiro
Nishikawa Eri
Bettendorf Justin P.
Mitsubishi Jidosha Engineering Kabushiki Kaisha
Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Pascal Robert J.
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