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New night vision system reduces car accidents
September 27, 2007About 42% of fatal car accidents happen at night, according to the European Commission for the Automobile Industry. This figure is extremely worrying bearing in mind that there is about 60% less traffic during at night time. This is largely due to the reduced visual acuity and field of vision at night as a consequence of the illumination from the headlights - these factors are currently being studied by a group of researchers from the Department of Computer Architecture and Technology at the University of Granada.
This group created an electronic system that significantly improves driving ability at night by using information extracted automatically from night visors. Researchers are working within a European project called DRIVSCO, whose participants include researchers from different countries who work on real-time vision and its application to the car industry. The study conducted at UGR developed a microchip which, when installed in a car, makes it easier to extract the information from cameras to elements involved in driving (bends, pedestrians, cars, etc.) which may be present on the road. In other words, this system will inform drivers by means of visual, acoustic or other signs about the obstacles appearing in their way, making intelligent cars even more sophisticated than is currently the case.
Improving visibility
The researcher who carried out this study is Eduardo Ros Vidal, who explained that the aim of this chip is to support the illumination of the car, which is insufficient for ideal vision. "Dipped headlights only illuminate about 56 meters when the breaking distance at 100 km/h is about 80 meters," says Professor Ros Vidal. The system created by his group uses two infrared cameras placed on the car which record the scene even further than the illumination of conventional headlights. Therefore, the chip extracts information about factors such as movement or depth in real time to improve the detection of specific elements and situations of interest.
Current artificial vision systems use this basic information to detect objects, pedestrians, bends etc. For instance, the system generates information about the depth of the scene in real time codifying the distance of every object - warm colours for close objects (reddish and more dangerous) and cold colours for distant objects (bluish and safer). The system also processes real-time movements, indicating the direction in which the object moves in the scene and how everything changes due to the movement of the car.
Other participants in DRIVSCO include the University of Münster (Germany), which is currently studying where drivers look when driving by using eye-tracking systems. This project is the continuation of ECOVISION, which also focused on the development of Advanced Driving Assistant Systems (ADAS), which are currently applied to high range cars and which will undoubtedly be improved thanks to the progress of DRIVSCO.
Universidad de Granada
The researcher who carried out this study is Eduardo Ros Vidal, who explained that the aim of this chip is to support the illumination of the car, which is insufficient for ideal vision. "Dipped headlights only illuminate about 56 meters when the breaking distance at 100 km/h is about 80 meters," says Professor Ros Vidal. The system created by his group uses two infrared cameras placed on the car which record the scene even further than the illumination of conventional headlights. Therefore, the chip extracts information about factors such as movement or depth in real time to improve the detection of specific elements and situations of interest.
Current artificial vision systems use this basic information to detect objects, pedestrians, bends etc. For instance, the system generates information about the depth of the scene in real time codifying the distance of every object - warm colours for close objects (reddish and more dangerous) and cold colours for distant objects (bluish and safer). The system also processes real-time movements, indicating the direction in which the object moves in the scene and how everything changes due to the movement of the car.
Other participants in DRIVSCO include the University of Münster (Germany), which is currently studying where drivers look when driving by using eye-tracking systems. This project is the continuation of ECOVISION, which also focused on the development of Advanced Driving Assistant Systems (ADAS), which are currently applied to high range cars and which will undoubtedly be improved thanks to the progress of DRIVSCO.
Universidad de Granada
Night Vision Current Events and Night Vision News RSSScientists develop an 'intelligent car' able to learn from his owner's driving and warn him in case of accident hazard
UGR News Scientists from six European countries, including Spain, have developed a new computer system so called DRIVSCO that allows vehicles to learn from the behaviour of their drivers at the wheel, in such a way that they can detect if a driver presents an "unusual behaviour" in a curve or an obstacle on the road and generates signals of alarm which warn him on time to react.
Small evolutionary shifts make big impacts -- like developing night vision, researchers find
In the developing fetus, cell growth follows a very specific schedule. In the eye's retina, for example, cones -- which help distinguish color during the day -- develop before the more light-sensitive rods -- which are needed for night vision.
'Gecko vision': Key to the multifocal contact lens of the future?
Nocturnal geckos are among the very few living creatures able to see colors at night, and scientists' discovery of series of distinct concentric zones may lead to insight into better cameras and contact lenses.
When every photon counts
The eyes of nocturnal mammals have very large numbers of highly-sensitive rod photoreceptors (the cell type responsible for night vision). They have to perceive light which is less than a millionth of the intensity of daylight.
Atomic-resolution views suggest function of enzyme that regulates light-detecting signals in eye
An atomic-resolution view of an enzyme found only in the eye has given researchers at the University of Washington (UW) clues about how this enzyme, essential to vision, is activated.
New Superlattice Structure Enables High Performance Infrared Imaging
Scientists at the Center for Quantum Devices (CQD) in the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University have demonstrated for the first time a high-performance infrared imager, based on a Type II superlattice, which looks at wavelengths 20 times longer than visible light.
Making strides in quantum dot infrared photodetectors
Researchers at Northwestern University have made significant strides in the development of quantum dot infrared photodetectors -- technology that may provide new imaging techniques with applications in medical and biological imaging, environmental and chemical monitoring, night vision and infrared imaging from space.
Stealth camouflage at night
Cuttlefish are well-known masters of disguise who use highly developed camouflage tactics to blend in almost instantaneously with their surroundings.
Never-before-made material similar to diamonds and ice, says UH professor
Not since the use of germanium in the first transistor radios and the discovery of its crucial role in semiconductor research more than 50 years ago has the study of this element garnered so much attention.
Thermal imaging shatters arousal gender gap myth
A new McGill University study that used thermal imaging technology for the first time ever to measure sexual arousal rates has turned the conventional wisdom that women become aroused more slowly than men on its head.
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