| abstract |
A deposit detector capable of estimating the presence or absence of the deposit adhered to a detected surface, type of the deposit, and the state of the deposit and a controller using the detector, wherein a light beam through the detected surface is focused by a lens and received by a light receiving element part formed of a plurality of micro light receiving elements disposed parallel with each other, the total reflection light beams from the detected surface are received by the light receiving element part in the deposit detection mode, each element is disposed at such an angle that the light beam is totally reflected when deposit is absent and the total reflection conditions are not satisfied when the deposit is present, the scattered light beams from the detected surface are received by the light receiving element part in the light scattering deposit detection mode, the detection signal levels of the micro light receiving elements are joined to each other according to the arrangement of the micro light receiving elements to provide a signal pattern, and the increased portion or lowered portion of the signal pattern produced according to the presence or absence of deposit and a state difference are analyzed to estimate the type and state of deposit such as rain drop, slurry, clouding, and icing. |