Method of evaluating basic curved surface for reflecting...

Illumination – Supported by vehicle structure – Including headlamp beam measuring or indicating

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C362S509000, C362S517000, C362S518000, C362S327000, C362S334000, C362S361000, C345S102000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06505961

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of evaluating a basic curved surface for a reflecting mirror to be applied to a vehicle lamp, an evaluation system for evaluating a basic curved surface for a reflecting mirror, and a computer-readable medium storing a program for enabling a computer to execute evaluation of a basic curved surface for a reflecting mirror to be applied to a vehicle lamp.
2. Related Background Art
A vehicle lamp comprises a light source, reflecting mirror for obtaining approximately parallel light from the light source, and a lens disposed in front of the reflecting mirror.
Recently, vehicles, incorporating the vehicle lamps, have been designed in their various shapes so that the shapes of vehicles become more attractive. This design requires the vehicle lamp to satisfy shape restrictions arising from conditions, such as the external shapes of the vehicles and a accommodation space required for the vehicle lamp, i.e., the requirement that the vehicle lamps have to be arranged in predetermined accommodation spaces with the attractive shapes of the vehicles being retained.
In the development of the vehicle lamps, it is necessary to determine the shape of the reflecting mirrors while taking such requirement into account. Thus, the reflecting mirrors of the vehicle lamps are composed of reflecting surface having, for example, a paraboloid of revolution or a multiple paraboloid, in order to obtain the desired reflection performance.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The lamps of automobiles have recently been required to achieve the shape restrictions that the lamps should be accommodated within the desired volume of the vehicles. In addition, the lamps have been required to achieve better optical performance than those in prior arts. To satisfy these requirements, the following configurations are adopted: (1) a reflecting mirror is composed of a plurality of reflecting surfaces; and (2) in determining the arrangement of the reflecting surfaces, a basic curved surface is determined to satisfy the shape restrictions and then the plurality of reflecting surfaces are disposed on this basic curved surface to form the reflecting mirror.
The present inventors have examined the design of this reflecting mirror and has discovered the following problems that occur when a reflecting mirror is provided with the improvement in the achievement of the requirements from the optical performance of the vehicle lamp while the requirement from the shape restrictions for the vehicle is satisfied. The inventors have also found that the optical performance of the reflecting mirror is separated into (1) the optical performance associated with the shape of the basic curved surface, and (2) the optical performance associated with the shapes and arrangements of the plurality of the reflecting surfaces. These optical performances of the reflecting mirror have been evaluated after the designing of the reflecting mirror proceeds to a particular stage of the design.
As the results of the inventors' further examination for the two separate performances above, the inventors have discovered that these performances have the following characteristics: the evaluation of performance item (2) can not be made until the shape and arrangement of the individual reflecting surfaces are determined; and the performance item (1) can be, however, evaluated after the basic curved surface has been determined.
In other words, if we have an appropriate technique for evaluating the performance item (1), wasteful repetition in designing the reflecting mirror can be removed. In addition, since a accommodating space for a vehicle lamp is different from others, the basic curved surface to be designed for the vehicle lamp is also different from the others. If the optical performance of a basic curved surface can be evaluated by the use of such a technique at an early stage of a design flow, it will be possible to apply more appropriate feedback to this designing stage in order to obtain far better optical characteristics.
The above-described examinations have shown the following: what is desired is to develop a tool which can support the designing of basic curved surfaces that depends on the designers' experiences; and it is also desired to evaluate optical performance at a predetermined design stage.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide as follows: a method of evaluating a basic curved surface for a reflecting mirror to be applied to a vehicle lamp; an evaluation system for evaluating a basic curved surface for a reflecting mirror; and a computer-readable medium storing a program for enabling a computer to execute evaluation of a basic curved surface for a reflecting mirror to be applied to a vehicle lamp.
The present inventors has made various examinations as to an evaluation method and an evaluation system, both of which are applicable to the evaluation of the optical performance of basic curved surfaces. The present invention will be constructed to have the following features. The present invention also has several aspects, as will be described below; a method of evaluating a basic curved surface, an evaluation system, a computer-readable medium storing a program.
One aspect of the present invention is a method of evaluating a basic curved surface for a reflecting mirror to be applied to a vehicle lamp. The method comprises the steps of: (a) entering light source information on a light source and design information indicative of the basic curved surface; and (b) displaying, on a display device, closed curved line data representative of one or more closed curved lines, the closed curved lines being included both in one or more planes intersecting a predetermined axis and in the basic curved surface. The predetermined axis is determined to extend in a direction in which light from the light source is to be reflected by the reflecting mirror, and passes through a light source position included in the light source information.
A computer program realizing this method includes a first input process provided so as to realize step (a) and a display process provided so as to realize step (b). This program enables a computer to execute evaluation of a basic curved surface for a reflecting mirror to be applied to a vehicle lamp. The program can be recorded on a computer-readable storage medium.
Another aspect of the present invention is an evaluation system for evaluating a basic curved surface for a reflecting mirror to be applied to a vehicle lamp. The invention comprises: (1) a memory; (2) a display device; (3) first entering means for entering design information indicative of the basic curved surface and light source information on a light source to store the information in the memory; and (4) first transmitting means for transmitting, to the display device, closed curved line data representative of one or more closed curved lines, the closed curved lines being included both in the basic curved surface and in one or more planes intersecting a predetermined axis.
Since the curved lines are included both in the basic curved surface and in the planes intersecting the predetermined axis, the shape of the curved lines reflect the shape of the basic curved surface thereon. When this shape is displayed, evaluation information for the shape of the basic curved surface can be provided with respect to the direction of the predetermined axis.
The method of evaluating a basic curved surface for a reflecting mirror to be applied to a vehicle lamp according to the present invention can further comprises the steps of: (c) generating plane surface data indicative of the planes intersecting the predetermined axis; and (d) obtaining one or more lines of intersection of the generated planes and the basic curved surface according to the design information and the plane surface data to form the closed curved line data from the intersection lines.
The program recorded on the computer-readable storage medium can further include a plane surface generating pro

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