Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Auto Sun Visor |
Blair Huang Siying Wang Xiaoyang Tian |
Douglas Yu | design_document2.pdf design_document3.pdf final_paper1.pdf presentation1.pdf proposal1.pdf video |
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| ## TITLE ### Auto Sun Visor ## TEAM #### Blair Huang (jh80) #### XiaoYang Tian (xt12) #### SiYing Wang (siyingw2) ## Problem As a driver , when you drive in block or city during sunny day, the sun is strong in front of you and will expose your eye sight under sunlight, and you decide to pull the Sun visor out, then you make a right turn, the sun suddently moved to your left, and you want to pull your wheel while you are adjusting the sun visor because the strong sun light will disturb your eye sight for safety -- approximately 9,000 crashes due to sun glare per year in US (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). Some people will choose not to hands off their wheel, and adjust the visor after turn, but driving in block means you need to make lots of turns, so people have to keep adjust the visor or just let the sun disturb their eye sight and expose them in to high crash possibility. What if we have a sun visor can adjust automatically according to sun position and you do not need to operate it manually? ## Solution Overview There are self dimmable glasses or electrochromic can easily solve this problem but why not build them in car? If you google the car with dimmable glass, the first and only sure modle pops up is Mercedos-Benz's Magic Sky Control system, and Mercedos is well known luxury car model. My idea in this case is to decrease the budget and tech requirement to achieve safe driving for our era now -- before solid electrochromic or dimmable glass tech get mature and price goes down. ## Solution Break Down ### hardware parts > 1. Linear Actuator > 2. Step Motor > 3. visor board -- light material and smaller sized for demo > 4. level-adjustable light sensor x3 or more > 5. button/switch > 6. PCB part > 7. lithium battery (small charge) ### main function/connection #### sensor unit: I have few light sensor in mind, but need to confirm with the machine shop: the Pulse Light Sensors which is designed to detect rapid changes in light intensity, or ambient light sensor with high threshold, and etc. The two light_sensor4 (Q1: why 2?) will be on front window and side window (Q2: what if some car do not have non-moveable side window?) and connected by wires to the PCB_part6. Based on the scenario, we will consider add more sensors -- add to the top of the window. The basic algorithm will be calculate the difference received between these sensors to detect which sensor is the sun more close to (that's the why we might have a sensor put on the top of the front window glass). The PCB_part6 will have a USB or the round cigarette_lighter_receptacle to colaborate with the car power (normally 12V). (Q3: what if bad weather the sensor be covered?) (Q4: what if someone do not want explicit wires on their car because its too messy?) #### PCB unit: This section refer to the PCB_part6. It will handle the feedback from the sensor which is pre set up to a sense level of certain light intensity to trigger the rotate_unit2 and slide_rail1. (Q5: how will these two sensor be handle and feedback to PCB?) Then the PCB_part6 will send request back to rotate_unit2 and slide_rail1 to let the sun visor to the proper position. #### Power unit: Normally the car will provide 12V, I am not sure if 12V is enough to power up the motor, so one lithium_battery7 is pending, but I am sure we need one battery for motor when the car is powered off: once the PCB unit get powered off, it will start to use the charged up small lithium_battery7, the battery should have enough power to let the sun visor back to original place. #### Switch Unit: Since people will destroy the gear of the Linear Actuator if they try to adjust it manually, we will make a easy controller for people want to manually move it. ### What If... 1. Consider Mid of US do not have much tunnel, but there are lots tunnel in other places, if both light sensor sensed light initially and suddenly no light at all, the visor will not move and keep its position -- if in garage, the power off instruction is established in Power Unit section. 2. If someone is too tall or the car do not have seat height adjust function, the board is able to be adjust manually, this product does not fit for people too short -- if someone is too high, then he won't need the sun visor anyway. 3. Not use sunglass is I think this function should be provide by the car itself, anyone drive this car should enjoy this service, some people wear glass need to buy another degreed sunglass, its very inconvenient. I want to make people's life better. 4. As I checked on internet, the sunlight (can impact people's vision) is much intense compared to car head light, road light, tunnel light, etc. So the sensor should be able to work for certain high value intensity. ### Answers to Qs Q1. Its only two side light possible dangerous for drivers: left side and front for US (for right drive, this is also efficient that people can just stick the front sensor to right side and left side sensor to front) Q2. My SUV have side window, but I know some smaller car do not, however, this design is aim for car industry, I hope car industries can consider this idea and build sensor embeded in cars so we do not need to explicitly stick the sensor to our windows. Q3. Rain day do not need sun visor; Snow day the car heat will melt snow --> turns out no shadow on sensor; leaves fall or car dirt --> the wind will blow the leaves away, and please manually clean up the car dirt or the dirt will also impact your drive safty. Q4. How people hide their car camera wire is how we hide those wire, and we will make the wire be long enough. Also as I stated, I am aiming the idea for more mature car industry, so the car will hide the wires inside car already. Q5. First we set up a basic light intensity level, and once reach that level, we compare two sensor's feedback strength to decide which side have stronger light. I am actually want this process to be more fluent that we culculate the average to decide where exactly is the sun. For example if the level number is 2, the sensor_1 recicved 3 and sensor_2 recived 4, the we can sure the light is more on sensor_2 but also near sensor_1, so we make a 3/4 visor to sensor_2 direction and 1/4 of visor to sensor_1 direction; and if the sensor_1 recicved 2 and sensor_2 recived 4, the visor should all the way go to sensor_2 place. This is just an example, still need culculation and experiment to make sure. Extra Q6: Sunglass would not work first because it does not cover the side view of the sun light, and it will also block the eye sight somehow, second it is inconvenient for people already wear glasses, the third point is the most important point is the side effect caused by vehicle should be solve by vehicle themselves -- it suppose to have the function let people drive it without glare by strong sun light. Extra Q7: The visor do not need to move too low because when the sunlight is low which means sunset or sun raise, which sun intensity will not effect people -- only around noon or after noon. Extra Q8: No GPS installed is because GPS do not provide weather report, and weather report need internet, so if a vehicle is able to connect to internet, then it is fancy enough to install the electrochromic glass. ## Criterion for Success Able to cover the light as the best the visor can do all the time and fulfill all the functionality described above. Device can resolve angle of sun light within an error of +- 10 degrees., the reaction time should be taken with in 0.5 s, so this visor will let people do not have "chance" to see the strong sun light. ## Demo instruction I talked to the machine shop, and they will help me make a "table-like" car-frame that I can hold and turn under one intense light source to trigger the sensor. ## A little bit about me: JH80 I have 5 years drive experience in both US and Japan, and this is a problem I have noticed for a long time, I also did product research, there are no such tech at all, so I decide bring this idea into this course. |
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