An illumination apparatus that illuminates an illumination zone having a first direction and a second direction crossing the first direction is provided with a light source to emit a coherent light beam, and a diffraction optical device to diffract the coherent light beam incident from the light source. The diffraction optical device diffracts the incident coherent light beam so that a width of the illumination zone in the second direction gradually becomes wider along the first direction of the illumination zone from a nearer side to the diffraction optical device.

The method of the invention comprises: obtaining a sequence of at least two images, with different levels of illumination; extracting the region containing the sign in the image; calculating the luminance values of the signs; and obtaining the difference in luminance of the sign corresponding to the two levels of illumination. The value obtained is the luminance of the sign (11) corresponding to an illumination equal to the difference between the illuminations, or additional illumination. This result is based on the additive property of luminance, according to which the luminance of a sign is the sum of the luminance produced by each source of illumination. A basic illumination device (5), an additional illumination device (7), at least one camera for taking images, and image recording, positioning and synchronism systems are required to implement the method.

A vehicle control system includes a vehicle-mounted imaging section configured to image surroundings of a vehicle, a vehicle-mounted imaging assist section configured to assist so as to increase the clarity of an imaging region of the imaging section, a recognition section configured to recognize surrounding conditions of the vehicle based on an image captured by the imaging section, an automated driving controller configured to execute automated driving in which at least one out of speed control or steering control is controlled automatically based on the surrounding conditions of the vehicle recognized by the recognition section, and an assist controller configured to adjust an operation of the imaging assist section when the automated driving is being implemented by the automated driving controller.

A vehicle lighting device and a method of controlling luminance thereof are provided. The vehicle lighting device includes a camera module configured to capture an image of the driver's face, a sensing unit configured to detect the surroundings of a vehicle, a lighting unit including at least one light source to illuminate the interior of the vehicle, and a controller. The controller is configured to acquire information on a daytime mode and a nighttime mode through the sensing unit, to acquire information on an infrared brightness level or information on the size of the pupil of the driver's eye based on the image of the driver's face captured by the camera module, and to control the luminance of the lighting unit in response to the acquired information.

A lighting apparatus for a vehicle includes a main lens; a light source device configured to emit light; and a first reflecting unit provided in a partial area of a front surface of the main lens. The lighting apparatus also includes a scanning module configured to reflect the light emitted from the light source device to the first reflecting unit in a predetermined scanning pattern. The lighting apparatus further includes a reflective fluorescent body configured to convert a wavelength of light reflected by the first reflecting unit and to reflect the light having the converted wavelength into the main lens. The scanning module includes: a scanning unit configured to be driven according to a predetermined frequency and to reflect an incident light in the predetermined scanning pattern, and a first light condensing device configured to condense the light emitted from the light source device into the scanning unit.

In a motor vehicle having motor vehicle exterior lighting devices and an operator control device, the following lighting modes of the motor vehicle exterior lighting devices can be set: deactivated, parking light, daytime running light, forwarding lighting, and automatic mode in which the motor vehicle exterior lighting devices are operated by an automatic forward light controller. The operator control device has a single monostable operator control element by which the lighting modes can be set; or the operator control device has a monostable operator control element by which the deactivated, parking light, daytime running light and forward lighting lighting modes can be set. The operator control device has a pushbutton key or a toggle lever by which the automatic mode can be set.

Disclosed herein are an apparatus to recognize an illumination environment of a vehicle and a control method thereof. The apparatus includes an infrared illumination sensor to detect an infrared illumination amount emitted from the sun, a camera, and an illumination environment recognition unit which detects the infrared illumination amount by the infrared illumination sensor, receives a camera exposure time from the camera, receives double exposure images captured to have different exposure values, calculates a general illumination value based on the detected infrared illumination amount, the received camera exposure time, and an illumination value obtained through an image clustering analysis of the double exposure images, calculates a rate of change in the calculated general illumination value, and recognizes a current illumination environment as an illumination environment for each time section based on the calculated general illumination value and the rate of change in the general illumination value.

A light-emitting device, notably a lighting and/or signaling device for a motor vehicle, including at least one first light source intended to emit a first modulated light beam coding information; at least one second light source intended to emit a second modulated light beam coding information; a control device adapted: to determine, on receiving information to be transmitted via the light-emitting device, if a first light beam intended to be emitted by the first source should be modulated to code the information to be transmitted and/or if a second beam intended to be emitted by the second source should be modulated to code the information to be transmitted, the determination depending on information relating to the local solar illumination; as a function of the determination, to modulate the first light beam and/or the energization second light beam to code the information to be transmitted.

A vehicle lighting device and a method of controlling luminance thereof are provided. The vehicle lighting device includes a camera module configured to capture an image of the driver's face, a sensing unit configured to detect the surroundings of a vehicle, a lighting unit including at least one light source to illuminate the interior of the vehicle, and a controller. The controller is configured to acquire information on a daytime mode and a nighttime mode through the sensing unit, to acquire information on an infrared brightness level or information on the size of the pupil of the driver's eye based on the image of the driver's face captured by the camera module, and to control the luminance of the lighting unit in response to the acquired information.

An illumination apparatus that illuminates an illumination zone having a first direction and a second direction crossing the first direction is provided with a light source to emit a coherent light beam, and a diffraction optical device to diffract the coherent light beam incident from the light source. The diffraction optical device diffracts the incident coherent light beam so that a width of the illumination zone in the second direction gradually becomes wider along the first direction of the illumination zone from a nearer side to the diffraction optical device.