Visor with point sun blocking

Claim 1

Protective eye gear for minimizing the effects of irritating sunlight in a field of view, the eye gear comprising: a light-transmissive lens to be positioned over a wearer's eyes; a matrix of electrically controlled and normally transparent segments mounted over the lens, individual segments being selectively switched to block direct sunlight from a wearer's field of view; photosensor means located in proximity to the lens for tracking the area of direct sunlight relative to a wearer's entire field of view; and control means connected between the photosensor means and the matrix segments for selectively switching segments in the matrix to a light-blocking state, the switched segments corresponding to the area of the wearer's field of view where direct sunlight exists; wherein segment light blocking is accompanied by a remaining clear field of the view for the wearer; the photosensor means including a plurality of individual segments located adjacent one another; and a lens mounted over the segments for focussing direct sunlight onto a portion of the segments, corresponding to the location of the direct sunlight within the otherwise clear field of view; the control means including (a) comparator means having inputs connected to respective photosensor segments for detecting which photosensor segments are receiving direct sunlight; (b) memory means connected to the output of the comparator means and containing a look-up table for establishing a unique memory output dependent upon the condition of the photosensor segments at a moment in time and selecting which of the matrix segments are to be switched to a sun-blocking state corresponding to the photosensor segments receiving direct sunlight; and (c) driver means connected between the output of the memory means and the matrix segments for switching selected segments between light-blocking and light-transmitting states; and (d) means connected between the driver and a second matrix mounted over a second lens for offsetting blocking segments thereof corresponding to blocked segments of the first matrix but corrected for parallax.

Claim 6

A method for protecting a person's vision from strong light within a field of view, the method comprising the steps: tracking the strong light on a multi-segment photosensor area corresponding to a field of view; comparing the states of the photosensor segments with a look-up table for establishing a unique memory output dependent upon the condition of the photosensor segments at a moment in time; interposing matrix means between the light and a person's eye; selectively switching individual segments of the matrix means to a light-blocking state in response to the memory output corresponding to shifts of incident strong light on the photosensor area while maintaining unaffected matrix segments in a light-transmitting state thereby only blocking the wearer's field of view in the area of strong light exposure.

Claim 7

A method for protecting a person's vision from strong light within a field of view, the method comprising the steps: tracking the strong light on a multi-segment photosensor area corresponding to a field of view; comparing the states of the photosensor segments with a look-up table for establishing a unique memory output dependent upon the condition of the photosensor segments at a moment in time; interposing matrix means between the light and a person's eye; selectively switching individual segments of the matrix means to a light-blocking state in response to the memory output corresponding to shifts of incident strong light on the photosensor area while maintaining unaffected matrix segments in a light-transmitting state thereby only blocking the wearer's field of view in the area of strong light exposure.