Side-by-side proof of concept (via Carnegie Mellon University)
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University are hoping their new head-light design will make driving through rain and snow storms safer for commuters. Driving through these conditions is daunting to say the least, but driving through them at night gives another issue, as headlights illuminate the particles making it hard for people to view the road. The researchers are combating this problem with their prototype headlight that reduces the glare associated with both rain and snow.
Their prototype uses a co-located imaging/illumination system that uses a Point Grey Flea3 camera, Viewsonic DLP projector and beam splitter along with a computer system (running an Intel I7 quad-core processor) to process all of the data. The system works by imaging the precipitation as soon as it hits the camera’s top field of view. The computer then processes the flight path of the precipitation and determines where the droplets/flakes will travel. The computer then tells the projector (located next to the camera) where the particles flight path will be and then uses the beam splitter to de-illuminate the projected path of the precipitation particles. The systems operating range is about 13 feet in front of the vehicles headlights and the reaction time from particle detection to de-illumination is about 13 milliseconds with a 98.6% accuracy of determining the flight path and 90% accuracy of de-illumination using a 1GHz processor.
This may seem like a long time, but the researchers state that using a 400MHz processor with less accuracy of detection and flight path (+/- 70%) would be a significant improvement for drivers over using nothing at all. The team states that the prototype light system is just a proof-of-concept design, but they are working to make the system much faster and more compact with testing to include moving vehicles. Commercialization of the system for future cars could take even more time, so don’t expect to see the system on the market anytime soon (Even when a good idea proves itself).
Cabe
