HinesLab
Vehicle Distance-Indicating
Back-Up Lights
Patent Pending
Manufacturing Licenses Available
...This is a technology announcement from HinesLab for vehicle back-up lights which project onto a garage wall, to indicate the distance of the vehicle.. In addition to the back-up lights illuminating the driveway, the upper portion projects the images onto the garage wall within the field of view of the rear window or video camera.. The benefit is not only to prevent damage to the vehicle and wall, but to optimize the parking space so that drivers will not leave the vehicle protruding in the driving lane as a result of being overly cautious in leaving clearance to the wall.
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...The system uses the vehicle's modified back-up lights as optical projectors, so that the images are projected from opposite sides of the rear of the vehicle at a slight diagonal onto the garage wall.. The images appear to slide horizontally over each other as the vehicle approaches the wall, with the vertical indicator crossing the horizontal scale to indicate the distance from the car to the wall.
How it works.
...One image is a horizontal scale with distance markings, projected from one of the back-up lights.. The second image is a vertical line projected from the alternate back-up light.. As the driver backs up, the images slide over each other on the garage wall.. The position where the vertical line intersects the numerical scale indicates the distance to the wall.
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...Top view of car backing toward garage wall.. Horizontal distance scale and vertical index are projected along white lines.. Black arrows indicate video field of view.
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...The images of the scale are projected from one tail light, and superimposed with the vertical line projected from the opposite tail light.. The driver sees this directly when looking out the rear window (as in the top portion of the drawing below).. Alternately, a rear-mounted video camera can photograph the projected pattern (as in the bottom of the drawing below) for display on a video screen for the driver.
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...This shows the garage wall as the car is backing toward it, 4.5 ft. away and the area visible out the rear window, above, and the area visible to the video camera, below.. The projected image for the video camera is reversed left-to-right so that it will read correctly in the driver's video display.
...The technique can be applied to loading docks where the projectors are stationary and the images are projected on the back of moving trucks. The scale can be adjusted to indicated the distance from the truck to the edge of the loading dock, rather than from the projectors.
...The system is particularly useful when parking airplanes because the nose of the plane is frequently not visible to the pilot.. Again, the scale indicates the distance from the wall to the tip of the plane nose, rather than from the projectors.
...The distance-measuring projector can be packaged in a simple enclosure that can be bolted on the back of a car, truck or trailer.. The optical projectors are behind the holes shown on both ends.. The video camera is behind the hole in the center.. The electrical wires are 12V power in, and video out.. The "L" bracket is used for mounting to the vehicle.
The original lab notebook entries for this invention.
...This vehicle-distance indicating technique is the subject of a pending patent application.. This is not a product for sale to end users.. HinesLab seeks a licensee.. Car companies and manufacturers of after-market auto parts, please contact Steve Hines by email, or at 818-507-5812.
