Slashdot Mirror
Smart Headlights Adjust To Aid Drivers In Difficult Conditions
An anonymous reader writes: Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute are developing smart headlights that not only trace a car's movement around bends, but are programmable to assist a driver in a wide range of driving conditions. The research team, at the institute's Illumination and Imaging Laboratory, is looking into designing headlights which do not highlight raindrops and snowflakes in bad weather, instead passing light around the individual drops and improving visibility. Its near-future design would also be able to avoid glare even when the high beam is in use, detecting up-coming vehicles and disabling the range of light that is directed at it. They also hope to incorporate GPS data to adjust the direction of the headlights according to the lane that a driver is occupying, illuminating it more brightly compared to surrounding lanes. The technology is supported by a looped system which will constantly read, assess and react to driving conditions. The prototype also features a built-in camera to capture visual data before transferring it to a computer processor installed in the vehicle, where it can be analyzed.
Way too complicated a solution for the problem. "Sorry, sir your headlight is not working. That'll be $2700 to fix it.
Just give the ability to automatically brighten and focus the lights on the slow driver ahead, the slower they get, the more focused the beams in their rear view and side mirrors.
That's all I need.
"They also hope to incorporate GPS data to adjust the direction of the headlights according to the lane that a driver is occupying, illuminating it more brightly compared to surrounding lanes"
My car's current headlights already do this, you know... by being in the lane the car is currently occupying. In this case it seems pointing straight ahead is achievable without any CPU cycles.
That read like it was from The Onion. Around individual rain drops?
=^..^= all your rodent are belong to us
Those stupidly overbright headlamps that dazzle you could be replaced by ones that dim themselves when they see oncoming traffic.
Or, you know, just made illegal. I'm sure they don't actually improve road safety, at least, not for everyone.
If they sense that disaster is impending, they simply turn themselves off to prevent the driver from becoming overly distressed in his last moments! (Think Peril-sensitive shades for your car!)
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
.. yeah, so when will they be programmed to not blind oncoming drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians. So far, any improvement I've noted in headlight technology is wasted by the fact that none of the new headlights seem to be illuminating the road, instead we're getting an illumination arms races because headlights are making it hard for anyone (other traffic, travelling in opposite directions) to see where and what they're doing.
I did a bunch of work recently on a headlight that automatically dims just the area around a detected oncoming car, so you can drive with your brights on all the time and it'll automatically filter out detected oncoming traffic so they don't get blinded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
(Sucks to be a pedestrian in this world, though...)
It uses steering wheel position, input from a webcam, and gps and map data to determine where the beam distribution is directed. This specific implementation only works on red cars, but we have some good ideas about how to generalize this.
Current car lights are already optimized somewhat to illuminate further and higher on the outside side of the car compared to the inside, to reduce glare for oncoming drivers. Doing this automatically, over a wider area, will be a nice stopgap until autonomous vehicles render this whole focus irrelevant.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Such over-engineered solution is probably works great on a clear night over smooth road with a new car. Try the same over potholed road, when entire front of your car is iced up, with a car that is now 6+ years old and both servos and sensors are worn.
My personal experiences with early generation of 'around the corner' adjustable headlights is that they visibly vibrate over bumps (you can see cutoff oscillate).
...it will get scragged by safety ordinances.
They've had directional headlights for decades in Europe.
If you import a car that uses them, like a Citröen, you will be required to break that capability, and make them fixed-forward.
Here's a link from a 3 yo slashdot post
My father bought a Cadillac in 1980 that had its headlights working like this. The high beams were on more or less by default, but would switch to regular headlights when an on-coming car approached.
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
The bit you're apparently not grasping is something called a spatial light modulator. ... Couple it with a microwave radar or ultrasound sonar, and you can track individual raindrops and then cast shadows on them.
Then construct an object that appears to the system to be raindrops and you can put an invisible obstacle in the road. B-b
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... Their technology is used to avoid blinding oncoming drivers instead of trying to "miss" raindrops.
You mean like this?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
...considering that self-driving cars are just a few weeks away?
Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
I could have sworn that Audi demoed this autodimming feature several years ago...
I already have most of this function in my Opel Insignia... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiSCCXaxzXc
Steve -- If you have to call it a system, you don't know what it is.
Not that I want it, but high end German cars (Mercedes, Audi) do actually have this, and had for years.
Audi currently is working on even changing the beam (wide, narrow) for slow (wide) and higher (narrow and far) speeds.
" Its near-future design would also be able to avoid glare even when the high beam is in use, detecting up-coming vehicles and disabling the range of light that is directed at it."
Very near 'future' indeed. My 2 year old VW Golf has that feature. Benz has had it for years.
..instead passing light around the individual drops
What the hell is THIS crap anyway? Sounds like a great way to both add a couple thousand dollars onto the price of a new car, and to also create a highly complex point of failure that you can't just stop by any auto parts store to fix in 10 minutes. Lights that follow the path of the car based on steering angle, sure, that's sensible (I have a helmet-mounted instead of handlebar-mounted light for night riding on my bike for that very reason) but the rest of it? Nonsense. Standard lighting on a gimbal that can adjust for conditions and steering would be good though.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
..if driving condition is not favorable.
Apparently most people have no idea about the appropriate use of high beams and auxiliary lights, manufacturers just keep making headlights brighter and more dazzling, and governments require them to be mounted higher rather than lower, resulting in oncoming drivers being blinded. In light of all this, automating the lighting systems could help, given that oncoming lighting is just getting worse every year.
You are annoying me and so I'm going to annoy you back. I'll cut you off, pass on the right, and pass in a curve if I am really in a hurry. Nope, if I am riding your ass with the brights blaring it is because I am being an asshole. I'm an asshole because you are an asshole. A cowardly one at that. You can always respond with "oh I'm just being safe", "I'm completely within the law", and other pussy-assed behavior but we all know that what you're really doing is white knighting for some unknown "greater good". If you wanted to be a goddamned cop then maybe you should have gone to be one instead of rolling around on the highway forcing your brand of safety and the law. When everyone is yelling at you, I'm sorry skidmark, you're the fucking problem.
I was unaware of a spatial light modulator. See, I'm from Mars and your gadgetry amazes me. Too bad I'm going to have to blow it all up. See what I am VERY familiar with is the Illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator. You'll probably encounter one in approximately 20 minutes as a large rocket heading straight for your planet. It will be followed up shortly by an Earth-shattering kaboom!
How about you program those damned LED taillights to point away from my eyes :/
Those same dazzling lamps that the OP was bitching about also plug right in to your fog light assemblies. I'm guessing that you already know that though. People who immediately have a defensive fit when someone mentions their fake ass HIDs are most likely guilty as fuck of using them. You don't need to be driving a suitcase car to get blinded. Assholes like you are driving around in jacked up 4x4s running 6 or 8 of them while purposefully belching excessive amounts of diesel smoke ya know, just to make up for those faggoty Priuses. My OCD isn't the only thing with a trigger, asshole.