JPH09202183A - Mirror angle automatic adjustment device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: To provide a mirror angle automatic adjustment device capable of automatically adjusting a mirror to an optimum angle for each driver. SOLUTION: Motors 2a to 4a of mirrors 2 to 4, motors 2b to 4b, encoders 2c to 4c, and encoders 2d to 4d are connected to a control box 1 of a driver's seat. Joystick 14 in control box 1
Is operated to store and register, in the controller 11, information about optimum horizontal and vertical angles of the mirrors 2 to 4 of each driver together with information about the position of the driver's seat in the front-rear direction. By calling the registration data in the control box 1, the controller 11 drives the motor 2a.
4a and motors 2b-4b are controlled to control the mirror 2
Automatically adjust ~ 4 to the optimum angle.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mirror angle automatic adjusting device for automatically adjusting the angles of a car fender mirror, a door mirror, a rearview mirror, etc. to an optimum one for a driver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Although the number of private cars in Japan has increased, considering the current domestic housing situation,
The reality is that it is difficult to own one car per person due to issues such as securing parking lots. For this reason, it is not unusual for several family members to drive a car. Also, in companies,
The company's sales car is rarely assigned to each sales person, and many people use one car.

[0003]

However, in the above case, each driver sets the angle of the fender mirror, the door mirror, or the rearview mirror to the angle corresponding to his or her sitting height each time he gets in the vehicle. I had to adjust it one by one. Further, even if the position of the driver's seat is changed, the angle of the mirror has to be adjusted each time.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic mirror angle adjusting device capable of automatically adjusting the mirror to an optimum angle for each driver.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, an automatic mirror angle adjusting device according to the present invention is provided with information on the optimum angle of the mirror for each driver and information on the position of the driver's seat in the front-rear direction at that time. The registration data consisting of is stored for a predetermined number of people who drive the same car, and by specifying the driver, the registration data of that driver is called and the mirror is automatically adjusted to the optimum angle of the driver. It is characterized by that.

In the automatic mirror angle adjusting device according to the present invention, the angle of the mirror is automatically corrected to an optimum angle with respect to the front-back position of the driver's seat.

According to the automatic mirror angle adjusting device of the present invention configured as described above, the information on the optimum angle of the mirror for each driver is registered together with the information on the front-back position of the driver's seat at that time. Since the driver recalls his / her registered data, the mirror is automatically adjusted to the optimum angle. Further, even if the position of the driver's seat in the front-rear direction moves, the angle of the mirror is automatically corrected to the optimum angle with respect to the position of the driver's seat.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of an automatic mirror angle adjusting device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, in the mirror angle automatic adjusting apparatus according to this embodiment, a control box 1 provided in a driver's seat of one car has a fender mirror 2, 3, a rearview mirror 4 and a driver's seat. Sheet 5 is connected. Information on the angles of the mirrors 2 to 4 for a predetermined number of people driving the vehicle is registered in the memory in the control box 1 together with the information on the position of the seat 5 in the front-rear direction. By simply performing a switch operation to select who is a registered driver, the registered information is automatically called and the angles of the mirrors 2 to 4 are automatically adjusted to the optimum one.

When the position of the seat 5 in the front-rear direction is different from that at the time of registration, or when the position of the seat 5 in the front-rear direction is changed after calling the registration data, the position of the seat 5 in the front-rear direction at that time is changed. The best mirror for Mirror 2
The angle of ~ 4 is automatically readjusted.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a detailed structure of the control box 1 of FIG. In the mirror angle automatic adjusting apparatus according to this embodiment, each of the mirrors 2 to 4 is used for horizontal rotation motors 2a to 4a and vertical rotation motors 2b to 4b, and for horizontal angle detection. It has encoders 2c-4c and encoders 2d-4d for detecting an angle in the vertical direction, which are connected to the control box 1 so that the horizontal and vertical angles of the mirrors 2-4 can be set independently. Has become.

As shown in FIG. 2, the control box 1 includes a controller 11 having a CPU, a memory and the like for storing driver registration data and automatically adjusting a mirror angle to a set value, and a register / call. Mode switching switch 12 for switching modes, a mirror selection switch 13 for selecting mirrors 2 to 4, a switch (not shown) for selecting a driver, and a joystick 14 for adjusting the angles of mirrors 2 to 4 during registration. Composed of and.

Here, the controller 11 is connected to the encoders 2c to 4c and the encoders 2d to 4d, and the angle information of the mirrors 2 to 4 in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction is supplied thereto. The mode change switch 12 is connected to the joystick 14 side at the time of registration, and is connected to the controller 11 side at the time of calling. Further, the mirror selection switch 13 is connected to the horizontal rotation motors 2 a to 4 a and the vertical rotation motors 2 b to 4 b of the mirrors 2 to 4, and the mirrors 2 to 4 selected by the mirror selection switch 13 are connected. The angle of 4 is adjusted. A control signal from the controller 11 is supplied to each of the mode changeover switch 12 and the mirror selection switch 13.

The joystick 14 includes switches SW1 to SW1.
It is composed of SW8. Here, the switches SW1 and S
W2, SW5, and SW6 are for setting the horizontal angles of the mirrors 2 to 4, and one terminals of the switches SW1 and SW6 are connected to the + power source, and the switches SW2 and SW5.
One terminal is connected to the negative power source. The switches SW3, SW4, SW7, and SW8 are for setting the angles of the mirrors 2 to 4 in the vertical direction.
One of the terminals of SW3 and SW8 is connected to the positive power source, and one terminal of the switches SW4 and SW7 is connected to the negative power source.

Details of the joystick 14 are shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the joystick 14
Has switches SW1 to SW8 arranged, for example, in a clockwise direction in four directions of up, down, left and right. Then, when the stick is tilted in each direction, the switch in that direction becomes O
When it becomes N and the stick is released, it returns to the center and all the switches are turned off.

For example, when the stick is tilted to the upper side, the switches SW1 and SW2 are turned on and the motors 2a to 4a are normally rotated. Conversely, if you push the stick downwards, the switch S
W5 and SW6 are turned on and the motors 2a to 4a are rotated in the reverse direction. Similarly, if you push the stick to the right, the switch SW
3, SW4 is turned on and the motors 2b to 4b are normally rotated,
When the stick is tilted to the left, the switches SW7 and SW8 are turned on and the motors 2b to 4b are reversed. In this way, depending on the direction in which the stick is tilted, the motor will rotate normally / OFF.
It is possible to control three states of / reverse rotation.

Next, the structure of the mirrors 2 to 4 according to this embodiment will be described. 4 and 5 show an example of the structure of the mirror. In this case, the mirrors 2 to 4 are constructed in substantially the same manner, and therefore, in FIG.
Of the four, only the fender mirror 2 is shown. Also,
FIG. 5 is an enlarged plan view of the encoder 2c shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4, in the mirror 2 according to this embodiment, an arc gear 22 is provided on the opposite side of the mirror surface 21. The motor 2a is provided so as to mesh with the gear 22, and the forward rotation / reverse rotation of the motor 2a enables the gear 22 and thus the mirror surface 21 to rotate about the shaft 23 in the left-right direction by, for example, 30 degrees each. An encoder 2c is provided at a predetermined position on the gear 22 to detect the current angle of the mirror surface 21.

The encoder 2c has a line-shaped optical sensor 24, as shown in FIG. This optical sensor 24
Is fixed, and a black-and-white pattern previously written on one surface of the gear 22 is optically read, and a digital value corresponding to the angle at that time is output. In this case, for example, 8-bit, 256-stage output is used for each 30 ° angle change in the left-right direction. In particular,
For example, information of 1 and 0 of 8-bit data is recorded on the surface on the gear 22 corresponding to white and black, and the angle of the mirror surface 21 is detected by reading the information with the optical sensor 24.

Although the motor 2a and the encoder 2c for the horizontal direction of the mirror 2 are shown here, the motor 2b and the encoder 2c for the vertical direction are also configured similarly.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the construction of the driver's seat 5. As shown in FIG. 6, an encoder 5a is provided on the lower side of the seat 5, for example. This encoder 5a is
The position of the seat 5 in the front-rear direction is read by the optical sensor 5b, and the information on the position of the seat 5 in the front-rear direction is supplied to the controller 11 of the control box 1 as 8-bit data. The configuration of the encoder 5a is similar to that of the encoder 2c shown in FIG.

Next, an operation example of the automatic mirror angle adjusting apparatus according to this embodiment, which is configured as described above, will be described.

First, in the mirror angle automatic adjusting apparatus according to this embodiment, when registering the angles of the mirrors 2 to 4, first, the mode changeover switch 12 is set to the registration mode to register the driver. . Next, the joystick 14 adjusts the horizontal and vertical angles of the mirrors 2 to 4 to be suitable for the driver. Here, by pressing the registration switch, the angle information supplied from the encoders 2c to 4c and the encoders 2d to 4d of the respective mirrors 2 to 4 at this time is stored as registration data in the memory of the controller 11.

At this time, in this memory, for each driver, angle information of the left and right fender mirrors 2 and 3 in the horizontal and vertical directions, that is, two mirrors × two-dimensional data = four data, and the back data. In addition to horizontal and vertical angle information of the mirror 4, that is, one mirror × two-dimensional portion = two data, one piece of data of position information of the driver's seat 5 in the front-rear direction is stored together. It Therefore, seven data are stored for one driver.

When calling the registration data, the driver is first selected in the control box 1, and the mode change switch 12 switches the mode to the registration data calling mode. Thereby, the registration data stored in the memory of the controller 11 is called, and the mirrors 2 to 4 are automatically adjusted to the registered angle. At this time, the controller 11 sets the mirrors 2 to 4 to 1 by sequentially switching the mirror selection switch 13.
Adjust to the optimum angle one by one. FIG. 7 shows the controller 1
The method of controlling the angles of the mirrors 2 to 4 in FIG.

First, in the controller 11 of the control box 1, when the registration data of the driver is called, first, in step S1, the current angles of the mirrors 2 to 4 are detected. In the next step S2, the detected current angle and target value (angle previously stored in the memory)
Is compared. Here, if the current angle is equal to the target value, the control proceeds to step S3, and the motor is not rotated and ends. Further, as a result of the comparison in step S2, when the detected current angle and the target value are not equal, the control proceeds to step S4, and the magnitudes of the both are compared. If the target value is larger than the detected current angle, the motor is normally rotated so as to increase the current angle in step S5. If the target value is smaller than the detected current angle, the motor is reversed in step S6 so as to reduce the current angle. Then, the process returns to step S1 and the current angle is detected again. Such control is performed until the current angle becomes equal to the target value. Thereby, the mirror 2
The angle of 4 is adjusted to the target value.

The above is the case where the position of the seat 5 at the time of registration is the same as the position of the seat 5 at the time of calling, but when the position of the seat 5 in the front-back direction is different at the time of registration and at the time of calling. The angle of each mirror 2-4 is less than optimal. Therefore, the current position of the sheet 5 is also detected, and the optimum angles of the mirrors 2 to 4 that match the position are
The mirrors 2 to 4 are calculated by the controller 11 of the control box 1 so that the calculated angle is obtained.
The angle of is corrected. The principle of the correction will be described below. FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram for explaining a method of correcting the angle of the mirror with respect to the position of the seat in the front-rear direction.

Now, let us consider a case where an object 32 is viewed through a mirror surface 31 as shown in FIG. Here, the moving direction of the seat 5 is the y-axis, and the direction perpendicular to this is the x-axis. Generally, according to the law of reflection, the mirror surface 31
It is known that the incident angle and the reflection angle with respect to the normal line are equal. Here, as shown in FIG. 8A, the incident angle =
When the reflection angle is θ / 2, the angle formed by the incident light ray from the object 32 and the reflected light ray to the eye 33 is θ. Also,
X of the distance from the reflection point of the mirror surface 31 to the position of the eye 33
If the axial component is x and the y axial component is y, then θ = ta
It becomes n ⁻¹ (x / y). At this time, if the angle formed by the mirror surface 31 and the incident ray from the object 32 is φ, then φ
= (180 ° -θ) / 2 holds.

Next, as shown in FIG. 8B, consider a case where the same object 32 as shown in FIG. 8A is viewed through the mirror surface 31 when the position of the seat 5 is slightly retracted right behind. In this case, from the reflection point of the mirror surface 31, the eye 33
The x-axis direction component of the distance to the position is defined as x ′, and the y-axis direction component is defined as y ′. Since the seat 5 moves in the y-axis direction, x '
= X. Therefore, the incident ray from the object 32 and the eye 3
If the angle formed by the reflected ray to 3 is θ ′, θ ′
= Tan ⁻¹ (x ′ / y ′) = tan ⁻¹ (x / y ′). At this time, if the angle formed by the mirror surface 31 and the incident light beam from the object 32 is φ ′, φ ′ = (180 ° −
The relationship of θ ′) / 2 holds.

Therefore, the position of the seat 5 moves backward,
Even when the y-axis direction component of the position of the eye 33 becomes y → y ′, the angle formed by the incident light beam and the mirror surface 31 is φ → φ.
By rotating the mirror surface 31 so that
The mirror angle with respect to the position of the sheet 5 is corrected.

Specifically, for example, in the controller 11 of the control box 1, θ and φ are calculated from x and y corresponding to the information on the position of the seat 5 in the front-rear direction in the registration data, and the front and rear of the current seat 5 are calculated. Θ ′ and φ ′ are calculated from x and y ′ corresponding to the information on the position in the direction. Then, Δφ = φ′−φ is calculated, and the angles of the registered mirrors 2 to 4 are reduced by Δφ,
The angles of the mirrors 2 to 4 with respect to the position of the seat 5 in the front-rear direction are corrected.

As described above, according to the mirror angle automatic adjusting apparatus of this embodiment, the optimum angles of the fender mirrors 2, 3 and the rearview mirror 4 for each driver registered in advance in the memory of the control box 1 are adjusted. By recalling the information, the mirrors 2-4 are automatically adjusted to the optimum angle.

Further, even if the front-rear position of the seat 5 in the driver's seat is different from that at the time of registration or the front-rear position of the seat 5 is moved, the angles of the mirrors 2 to 4 are set in the control box 1. The controller 11 automatically re-adjusts to an optimum angle with respect to the front-back position of the seat 5 at that time.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been specifically described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made based on the technical idea of the present invention. .

For example, in the above-described embodiment, various driving mechanisms for the mirrors 2 to 4 are possible.

[0036]

As described above, according to the present invention, the information on the optimum angle of the mirror for each driver is registered together with the information on the longitudinal position of the driver's seat at that time. Therefore, the driver automatically calls the registered data to automatically adjust the mirror to the optimum angle. Therefore, unlike the conventional case, it is not necessary to adjust the angles of the mirrors one by one each time the driver is changed, and the complicated adjustment is eliminated. Also, the angle of the mirror that had to be readjusted each time the driver's seat was moved is automatically readjusted to the optimum angle with respect to the position of the driver's seat in the front-rear direction at that time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a mirror angle automatic adjusting device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a control box 1 of a mirror angle automatic adjusting device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a joystick 14 of a mirror angle automatic adjustment device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a fender mirror 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG.

5 is an enlarged plan view of the encoder 2c shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a seat 5 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart for explaining a method of controlling the angles of the mirrors 2 to 4 in the controller 11 of the mirror angle automatic adjustment device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram for explaining a method of correcting the angle of the mirror with respect to the position in the front-rear direction of the seat in the mirror angle automatic adjustment device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Control Box 2, 3 Fender Mirror 2a-4a, 2b-4b Motor 2c-4c, 2d-4d Encoder 4 Rearview Mirror 5 Seat 11 Controller 14 Joystick

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. Registered data consisting of information on the optimum angle of the mirror for each driver and information on the position in the front-rear direction of the driving seat at that time is stored for a predetermined number of people who drive the same vehicle. An automatic mirror angle adjusting device, characterized in that the registration data of the driver is called by the designation and the mirror is automatically adjusted to the optimum angle of the driver. 2. The automatic mirror angle adjusting device according to claim 1, wherein the angle of the mirror is automatically corrected to an optimum angle with respect to the position of the driver's seat in the front-back direction. .