A system for a vehicle wiper is disclosed. The system comprises a first rain sensor disposed on a fore portion of a vehicle and a second rain sensor disposed on an aft portion of the vehicle. The system further comprises a controller configured to suspend a rain sensing activation identified during a monitoring cycle in response to a control event. The control even comprises detecting moisture with the first rain sensor for a delay time without detecting the moisture with the second rain sensor.

A lens component of an optical rain sensor (10) has an emitter lens (16) configured as a Fresnel lens and a receiver lens (18) configured as a Fresnel lens, each of which, in a top view, has a rectangular contour with first edges and second edges extending at right angles thereto, the center (M.sub.S) of the emitter lens (16) and/or the center (M.sub.E) of the receiver lens (18) being arranged off-center with respect to the side length of at least one of the edges, and the emitter lens (16) and the receiver lens (18) being arranged side by side. The lens component (12) is manufactured in a negative molding process in which first and second mold inserts are arranged side by side, each of which having a Fresnel lens mold, the first and second mold inserts each being selectively arranged in a manner rotated through 0 or through 180, and the mold inserts arranged in this way forming a negative mold for the emitter lens (16) and the receiver lens (18) of the lens component (12) during the negative molding process. This provides a modular system for manufacturing optical rain sensors (10), having lens components (12) in a plurality of different configurations which differ from each other in regard to the distance of the centers (M.sub.S, M.sub.E) of the emitter lens (16) and the receiver lens (18). For manufacturing the lens component (12), the mold inserts are arranged side by side, each in a manner selectively rotated through 0 or through 180, and are negative-molded using a suitable plastic material. This is performed in a tool for manufacturing a lens component (12), which includes a mount into which the mold inserts can be placed next to each other along the second edge, the first and/or the second mold insert each being adapted to be inserted into the mount in a manner rotated through 0 or through 180.

A lens receives light from an emitting element and guides the light reflected on an outer surface of a windshield toward a receiving element. Arithmetic processing is to acquire, as a sensor output signal, a difference between a light receiving value of the receiving element before or after an emission timing of pulsed light and a light receiving value at the emission timing. Comparison processing is to determine that the present value is normal and to use the present value as the sensor output signal when a difference between a previous value and a present value of the sensor output signal is less than a threshold. The comparison processing is to determine that the present value is abnormal and not to use the present value for controlling a wiper device when the difference is greater than or equal to the abnormality threshold.

Method and apparatus are disclosed for detection and identification of opaqueness of vehicle windows. An example vehicle includes a window including an interior surface and an exterior surface, a light transmitter to emit light, and light sensors to measure the light. The light sensors include a first sensor offset from and a second sensor aligned with the interior surface. The light sensors also include a third sensor offset from and a fourth sensor aligned with the exterior surface. The example vehicle also includes a controller for detecting a source of opaqueness of the window via the light sensors.

A system for a vehicle wiper is disclosed. The system comprises a first rain sensor disposed on a fore portion of a vehicle and a second rain sensor disposed on an aft portion of the vehicle. The system further comprises a controller configured to suspend a rain sensing activation identified during a monitoring cycle in response to a control event. The control even comprises detecting moisture with the first rain sensor for a delay time without detecting the moisture with the second rain sensor.

A molded lens assembly includes a cover and at least four molded elongated features. The cover may have a substantially planar portion and side portions extending away perpendicularly at a periphery of the substantially planar portion and defining an inner surface of the substantially planar portion. The at least four molded elongated features generally extend away from the inner surface of the substantially planar portion and are arranged such that a long axis of each of the molded elongated features is aligned with a side of a polygon having a number of sides equal to the number of molded elongated features. Each molded elongated feature generally includes a first convex lens portion at a first end and a second convex lens portion at a second end.

A multifocal rain sensor includes: at least one light emitting unit configured to output light; a first reflective plate corresponding to the at least one light emitting unit and disposed at a position spaced apart from the at least one light emitting unit by a predetermined distance; a glass part reflecting light after the light is reflected by the first reflective plate and forming a sensing region; a second reflective plate re-reflecting the light reflected by the glass part; and a light receiving unit configured to receive the light reflected by the second reflective plate. The second reflective plate includes a multifocal reflective plate having a plurality of focuses based on a vertical height of incident light that varies according to a change in thickness of the glass part.

An integrated rain and solar radiation sensing module including at least two light emitting elements, a plurality of input lenses, wherein at least two of the plurality of input lenses are configured to receive and collimate light emitted by each of the light emitting elements, a plurality of output lenses numbering at least twice as many as the plurality of input lenses, wherein each output lens is configured to receive and focus light that is collimated by at least one of the plurality of input lenses and reflected off of a transparent substrate, and a plurality of light receiving elements, wherein each light receiving element configured to receive focused light from at least one of the output lenses and to convert the received light into an electrical output signal proportional to the received light.

A window wiper system includes a wiper assembly, a window moisture sensor, a wiper torque sensor and a control module. The control module is responsive to the window moisture sensor and the torque sensor to control the operation of the window wiper assembly.

An optical sensor device includes a plurality of light-emitting elements arranged on an arrangement surface to be apart from each other in an x direction perpendicular to a z direction that is a direction connecting an area corresponding to the plurality of light-emitting elements and an area corresponding to a light-receiving element. A light-guide lens portion includes a plurality of incident portions respectively corresponding to the plurality of light-emitting elements and respectively receiving light from the plurality of light-emitting elements. The plurality of incident portions is provided with an equalizing portion configured to equalize intensity of the light incident on the light-guide lens portion along the x direction by reducing the intensity of the light along the z direction out of the light that is emitted from the light-emitting element, while allowing an incident of part of the light emitted from the light-emitting element adjacent to the corresponding light-emitting element.