To eliminate the night-driving inconvenience of invisibility beyond the range of headlights, we have developed a system for giving drivers visual information about the road ahead.
The developed system uses near-infrared light to illuminate pedestrians and road topography at night, providing the driver with a wider view than with high beams, regardless of whether the driver is driving with low or high beams.
Since the developed system uses near infrared light, it can give almost the same natural images as the driver actually sees through the windshield, but there is a problem in that glare tends to occur under the influence of streetlights and oncoming vehicle headlights.
The structure and gamma-characteristic of the system's components have been optimized to realize a glare-free nighttime assist system for automobile use that enables drivers to recognize pedestrians up to 150 m ahead.
This paper describes the measures taken to suppress glare, and details of the developed system.