Radiant energy – Photocells; circuits and apparatus – Optical or pre-photocell system
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-17
2002-08-20
Le, Que T. (Department: 2882)
Radiant energy
Photocells; circuits and apparatus
Optical or pre-photocell system
C250S573000, C318S483000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06437322
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to an optical moisture sensor for detecting moisture on the surface of a transparent material, and more particularly, to a moisture sensor digital signal processing filtering for reducing the effects of unwanted signal components.
The accumulation of moisture on transparent materials, such as glass or Plexiglass, can obstruct a person's view through the material. Motor vehicles have long been equipped with motor-driven windshield wipers for clearing the moisture from the external surface of the windshield, at least within the driver's field of vision, and generally over a larger area so as to enhance one's vision through the windshield.
In most vehicles today, the windshield wiper system includes multi-position or variable speed switches which allow the driver to select a wide, if not an infinitely variable, range of speeds to suit conditions. Wiper controls are manually operated and typically include a delay feature whereby the wipers operate intermittently at selected time delay intervals.
Wiper control systems have recently been developed which include a moisture sensor mounted on one of the vehicle windows to automatically activate the wiper motor when moisture is deposited upon the surface of the window. The wiper control system including the moisture sensor are most typically mounted on the windshield, although the system may be mounted on the rear window or any other glass surface intended to be cleared of moisture. Such wiper control systems free the driver from the inconvenience of frequently adjusting the wiper speed as the driving conditions change.
Wiper control systems have used a number of different technologies to sense the moisture conditions encountered by a vehicle, including conductive, capacitive, piezoelectric, and optical sensors. Optical sensors operate upon the principle that a light beam is diffused or deflected from its normal path by the presence of moisture on the exterior surface of the windshield. The systems which employ optical sensors have the singular advantage that the means of sensing disturbances in an optical path is directly related to the phenomena observed by the driver (i.e., disturbances in the optical path that affords the driver vision). McCumber et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,620,141) disclose an optical moisture sensor which triggers a sweep of the wiper blades in response to the presence of water droplets on the exterior surface of a windshield.
In optical moisture sensors, a pulsatile light signal from an emitter is directed into the windshield and reflected back by the outer surface of the windshield and into a detector. The presence of moisture on the surface of the windshield affects the reflection of the pulsatile light signal at the outer surface of the windshield resulting in a reflected signal having a lower amplitude. The detector receives the reflected pulsatile signal and produces a pulsatile output signal which indicates the change in amplitude of the reflected emitter signal. The detector output signal also contains unwanted signals such as those from ambient light, electromagnetic interference, and white noise generated by the detector. These undesirable signal components must be removed before accurate moisture readings can be obtained.
It is known to use filters to remove unwanted signal components from the pulsatile detector signal. Schierbeek et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,916,374 show that a photovoltaic cell may be connected to a current to voltage amplifier, a high pass filter, and a further voltage amplifier, and subsequently demodulated using a sample and hold. The filters and amplifiers are of '374 are thus pre-demodulation circuits which act on the pulsatile signal before a demodulator converts it into a dc signal that is affected by sensed moisture. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,956,591, Schierbeek at al. use a high pass filter to remove the DC bias, and amplification located before demodulation.
However, the use of wide band pre-demodulation gain increases the amplitude of broadband unwanted noise especially white noise caused by random recombination of electrons and holes in the photodiodes. Such noise is inherent in the devices. It is desirable to use wideband pre-demodulation gain to increase the signal strength for improved sensitivity to moisture events. Without such gain, the sensor may not respond to the effects of small moisture droplets. Wideband pre-demodulation gain, however, amplifies the unwanted noise along with the desired signal. It is therefore, desirable to remove unwanted noise in the moisture detector signal after demodulation so that the sensor may be able to respond to small droplets of moisture.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A moisture sensor for detecting moisture on the surface of a transparent material. The moisture sensor includes one or more emitters for producing emitter signals which are influenced by moisture on the transparent material, and one or more detectors for receiving the emitter signals. The detector produces a detector output signal which is filtered and amplified in a pre-demodulation gain and filtering circuit to remove some of the unwanted signal components including noise from ambient light and EMI. A demodulation circuit creates a dc signal for indicating the presence of moisture.
The invention incudes extensive Digital Signal Processing filtering after the moisture signal is demodulated to discern small signal changes due to moisture events in the presence of large amounts of the noise created by the pre-demodulation gain circuit. The DSP filtering includes a low pass filter stage implemented by a microcomputer using an 8 element First In First Out shift register, a summing element and a division element. The output of the filter is an average of the eight prior input values. As a result, white noise in the demodulated moisture signal is attenuated by a factor of eight. The DSP filtering further includes a bandpass filter stage implemented by a microcomputer using
32
element First In First Out shift register, a summing element and a division element. The bandpass filter further reduces the white noise in the signal, as well as reducing the effects of very low frequency disturbances.
The DSP filtering of the invention alternatively provides a Finite Impulse Response, an Infinite Impulse Response, or uses Fast Fourier Transform to provide the necessary filtering.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5557040 (1996-09-01), Inenaga et al.
Le Que T.
Marshall & Melhorn LLC
Pilkington North America Inc.
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