Optical Sensor mounted on windscreen enables cars to see clearly in fog

Driving cars and parking them is not too much of a hassle when one can see the surroundings clearly. The difficulty arises in situations where the road is dark or its foggy outside. To help drivers cope with these situations, a new device is being developed by a team of researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer Labs. The device is essentially an Optical Sensor which needs to be placed between the windshield of the car and its rear view mirror. Equipped with a camera, this intelligent device is capable of combining and analyzing several images to locate the hard to see spots.

Windshield sensor

The team at Fraunhofer adds that the device sensors are sharp enough to determine weather conditions and ambient lighting surroundings. Thus, when the device senses fog outside, it automatically turns the fog lamps on so that the road can be seen clearly and the car can be noticed by other vehicles. Similarly the device can also switch on emergency flash lights in critical situations. Such systems have been installed in some high end German cars. The objective of Fraunhofer’s development is to create a device that lasts longer without exhausting the light detectors and LEDs, thus the device can be installed in mass autos as it is more cost effective.

Along with a camera, the optical device also has an infrared LED and a couple of Fresnel lens sensors which have a large aperture but are easy to carry. LED helps the driver determine weather conditions as its waves scatter in the fog. As compared to the LEDs, the Fresnel lenses are quite a challenge, elaborates Mr Henning Schroeder, group manager, Fraunhofer Berlin. To overcome this drawback, special glass optics are being designed by his team. Also known as “light pipes”, these hollow tubes have mirrors and can deflect light by almost 90 degrees, thus enabling even the small systems which can easily be integrated in most of the passenger cars. The team is currently using a hot stamping system to manufacture these light pipes. A European Union project is funding this research which is presently being tested on field.

Via: PopSci