Mercedes Unveils Digital Headlights That Project Street Signs, Markings Onto the Road Ahead (newatlas.com) 65
An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Atlas: Mercedes has just announced a conceptual new set of lamps that can not only adapt their light distribution to cater to the environment, but can project high-res visual aids onto the road ahead, such as makeshift zebra crossings for nearby pedestrians. The new system is dubbed Digital Light and features two million pixels that, with the help of algorithms and sensors that analyze the vehicle's surroundings, can each adjust their individual brightness depending on the scenario. An example of this might be a partial dimming to avoid blinding a cyclist. We have seen this kind of adaptive lighting technology before in systems developed by Fraunhofer and indeed Mercedes itself, although tuning it to control millions of pixels individually does appear to be new territory. But where the Digital Light system gets quite interesting is with the ability to project different objects onto the road. Imagine you are rolling up to an intersection in a foreign city with unfamiliar streets signs and the car, having collected the necessary information, projects a stop sign onto the road out ahead. Perhaps just as practical is the ability to shoot out strips of light that represent the precise width of the car, which could be pretty hand just as you try to squeeze through that extremely narrow gap. For what it's worth, Mercedes says it has already fitted it to a number of demo vehicles and reckons it will be on the road "in the near future."
Bad Idea, but that's what Germany is up to now. (Score:5, Insightful)
The correct way to do this is with a heads-up display. Projecting images on the road will have all sorts of unintended consequences,
including but not limited to distracting the drivers of oncoming cars ( those people who are so inconsiderately sharing the road
you imagine you "own" ).
I'd say I was surprised that German engineers thought this was a good idea, but I've seen the cars they are making these days
and I now expect mediocre work from them. Stuff like plastic intake manifolds and coolant piping, and the most amusing of all,
the "biodegradable" wiring harness ( ask any season Mercedes-Benz tech about that one ) have caused me to conclude that
the companies involved are no longer concerned with doing the best possible work.
Re:Bad Idea, but that's what Germany is up to now. (Score:5, Funny)
4 Mercedes pull up to 4-way stop
hilarity ensues
Not just a bad idea it's a sinister one (Score:4, Interesting)
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It's less funny when you realize that they are developing a car that can project a "makeshift zebra crossing" onto the road directly in front of it. Why exactly would you want to entice pedestrians to walk out into the road directly in front of a car? Hmmm.
So your pedestrian-killing algorithm [businessinsider.com.au] has targets to aim for? Quick, turn on the zebra-crossing projector, that's ten points each up ahead!
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Yep. Plus they did not invent anything. This has existed for 3 years now as an open source project already. They copied other people's ideas.
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The correct way to do this is with a heads-up display.
That works great if it's calibrated to your head position, and you don't move your head a lot. Not so much for Wayne and Garth.
Head tracking and a fast computer might help, once it not only tracks a 2D head position, but also distance from the windshield.
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once it not only tracks a 2D head position, but also distance from the windshield.
I have a tablet that claims to be able to know when I am looking at the screen. I think this problem has been solved for quite a bit of time.
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No, that's 2D, not 3D. It knows the direction your eyes are facing, but not how far away they are, which is needed to project an overlay correctly.
Google glasses can do it because you're always the same distance from the screen, but when driving you aren't, unless someone straps your head to the headrest.
So you need 3D head monitoring, not just 2D. And that's not here yet.
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They can't track someone's head in an small, empty, unobstructed cabin, but they want us to bet our lives on their ability to track hundreds of cars/pedestrians/random bits of debris in real time in a region of hundreds of thousands of cubic yards in god-knows what weather?
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"Projecting images on the road will have all sorts of unintended consequences"
Some definitely would, that projection of a "turn here" image into the middle of an intersection is hilariously stupid. Many of the other capabilities would be hard pressed to do anything but assist in real world driving. Directing the headlight beam away from the windshield of oncoming cars and the faces of pedestrians would be a major improvement. The ability to project some simple notifications (like pedestrian markers, high
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Another prospect once this technology is widespread would be to have side and back-mounted lights that cooperatively light the road for other drivers, which can then dim their own forward facing lights more to reduce even further the glare going into your windshield. Streetlights could get into the act as well.
I've been of the opinion for a while that really, this technology is where all the attention should be, because its potential for disaster is somewhat less than autonomous vehicles, and it allows the
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Last I checked, no autonomous cars use the other car's headlights to determine where the car is. This is what radar is good at.
Re:Bad Idea, but that's what Germany is up to now. (Score:5, Insightful)
While the road projection seems like a dumb idea, some of the other features of these smart lights as shown on their site actually sound really useful, such as intelligently not blinding oncoming traffic by blocking your headlights from projecting light at their faces while still lighting up the rest of the road in front of you.
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The correct way to do this is with a heads-up display. Projecting images on the road will have all sorts of unintended consequences,
including but not limited to distracting the drivers of oncoming cars ( those people who are so inconsiderately sharing the road
you imagine you "own" ).
While the road projection seems like a dumb idea, some of the other features of these smart lights as shown on their site actually sound really useful, such as intelligently not blinding oncoming traffic by blocking your headlights from projecting light at their faces while still lighting up the rest of the road in front of you.
But that part is not really new, something like that is already in production on many current cars. For example, my VW Golf has "dynamic light assist", which is exactly like that "no blinding" function - the main beam can be left on all the time, and when oncoming traffic is detected via a camera, the main beam is partially masked to avoid blinding: http://en.volkswagen.com/en/in... [volkswagen.com]
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I find that often motor companies do this thing called innovating by researching new ideas often as a proof of concept, or a solution looking for a problem, but all too often despite that it may not have immediate practical application a journalist will none the less comes along and tell everyone "THIS IS THE FUTURE GUYS!!!!11!1!"
So tl;dr edition: This is likely just a proof of concept with a specific application in the future that we're just not seeing yet.
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... with a heads-up display
The problem with the HUD is that projected overlays remain at a fixed focal distance. A volumetric HUD (holographic) would work for this experiment but I think this is a nifty 'cheat' for demonstrating what a volumetric HUD can do, should a car manufacturer pursue commercializing it.
The current commercial offerings for HUD tech are at best a driving distraction, which is in large part why they have failed in the market place.
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It could be used to signal the intentions of the car to those around the car. The projected pedestrian crossing signals to the pedestrian that the car is intending to stop, so it is safe to cross. The projected turn sign indicates that the car intends to turn right at that turn, and not the (sometimes very close by) earlier or later ones.
Of course this only really works for autonomous cars, since as long as there is a human at the wheel the car won't know what the human is going to do.
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Love the idea. It of course stops working in dust storms and snow storms and fog. It is really needed when it stops working. I presume it also stops working in daylight too.
Two things (Score:2)
I believe this story's line should be brown.
No possible problem with this at all. (Score:4, Interesting)
projects a stop sign onto the road out ahead.
Or projects a different sign. Other vehicles see that sign and assume it must be right, ignoring the posted stop sign (or other traffic control device) and causing an accident. I see absolutely no risk in each vehicle creating it's own moving traffic control system.
Especially when it starts projecting "zebra crossings" into the street. That's going to create a mess and be quite a process here in Oregon where there is a crosswalk at every intersection. What fun, when a pedestrian sees the oncoming car projecting crosswalk markings so they assume the driver is aware of it and steps out into the street assuming the driver is already planning on stopping. Hilarity ensues.
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The problem is perspective. The road is flat, so what's projected on it will not appear as the same shape for someone looking on it from elsewhere.
Also, roads are seldom ballroom floor flat. Which paint can overcome, but a very shallow angle light can't. Even a very small hump in front of the target, small enough to not even notice when driving over it, can block the light.
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The problem is perspective. The road is flat, so what's projected on it will not appear as the same shape for someone looking on it from elsewhere.
No. If you project what appears to be a "zebra crossing" onto the street, it has to appear on the street in the same place as a real zebra crossing for the driver to see it as such.
There are perspective issues involved, but they exist for both the projection and the viewer. You cannot simply project an image of a zebra crossing onto the street, you have to distort it to take the surface into account. And the viewer's brain will take care of the reverse perspective problem, taking the distorted regular str
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Perform this thought experiment. You are in a large lecture hall. There is a computer projector displaying a circle on the screen at the front of the room. The projector electronics have taken the angles into account and distorted the incoming video signal so that the displayed image is a circle on the screen. Now move about the room so your perspective of the screen changes. The image on your retina will change based on your angle to the screen, but your brain will still see a circle.
Counter-example: Walk along a school road, and look for the SCHOOL marking in the street. From the side, it's so distorted that it's very hard to make out what it says.
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Counter-example: Walk along a school road, and look for the SCHOOL marking in the street. From the side, it's so distorted that it's very hard to make out what it says.
That's not a counter-example. The school marking is distorted so that it appears to be normal text TO THE DRIVER. It's text, we're used to seeing it as text.
But a zebra crossing has a fixed GROUND image, and drivers are most used to seeing it from that perspective. Just what is the "normal" perspective for that marking which is only ever seen from the side as it is painted on the ground? There is no other "normal" perspective. It needs to be seen as it would be were it on the ground, because that is the on
Very interesting, but could cause other problems (Score:3)
This is pretty cool. I think in general it's a good idea, however I can see it causing entirely new sets of problems. As drivers we recognize the difference between what we ought to do, and what we must do. For example, there are times when crossing a double yellow line would result in my death, while there are other times I cross the double yellow line safely and without risk to avoid a hazard in my lane or on the shoulder. My concern is people will start seeing these visual aids as things they *must* do. Thus in the process of trying to adhere exactly to the virtual markings, they become oblivious to the actual hazards that are more important. In one of the pictures they show two lane markers projected, which is where the car ideally should travel. On the right there are barriers that are actual hazards that are taking up part of the lane, and to the left is the other lane, which may or may not be an actual hazard. So if I am concentrating on the projected markers (which I assume are "intelligent" because they are dynamic), will it be obvious enough that I am travelling into another lane and that I must make sure the lane is clear of other vehicles first?
http://img-2.newatlas.com/merc... [newatlas.com]
The real question though is this... if the car has that much information about the environment to project images that tell you what to do, why isn't the car doing the driving in the first place?
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The real question though is this... if the car has that much information about the environment to project images that tell you what to do, why isn't the car doing the driving in the first place?
That's easy, lawyers.
Lawyers are why we can't have nice things.
Don't get me wrong. We need laws. We need people knowledgeable in law. We need courts, a justice system, and so on. The problem is a profession built upon frivolous lawsuits. These lawyers get paid even if the suit is stupid, or even unlikely to win. There is no easy solution to this because the stupidity of a given lawsuit is in itself something that is open to debate. Getting lawyers that simply will not take money to go through with st
this (Score:2)
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What I got from that ad was that the particular drug causes *permanant* hair loss while other drugs do not, and this side-effect was not mentioned to caregivers/patients so they could factor it into their decision.
Still a typical ambulance chasing ad, though.
Fart (Score:2, Troll)
I farted. I demoed this to people in the office, and they were quite excited. You'll be able to experience it yourself "in the near future".
(This kind of shit is stupid and won't be around "in the near future". The regulations for headlights alone would take years to rewrite and grease through. Further, nobody wants to see the projections from a car other than their own, least of all cyclists and pedestrians. It's bad enough when some jackass has illegal HID lamps that are misaligned so they blind you a
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I'm piloting over a tonne of metal moving at speeds capable of inflicting instantaneous death upon anything in my way; don't fucking distract me by putting on a pretty light show on the road ahead!
Indeed. And this includes strobo lights on bicycles, which are banned in some more civilized countries precisely because they cause accidents for others than the selfish bastard using them for their own protection, fuck everybody else.
Cooperate, and don't distract people who try to control heavy objects at high speed.
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I'm piloting over a tonne of metal moving at speeds capable of inflicting instantaneous death upon anything in my way
What about a California Redwood?
Or a layer of water bears on the road?
The marketing options are endless!! (Score:5, Funny)
Can the project ads for close by stores, like Duncan Donuts? Or maybe pop up some on-road advertising for what you look at on Amazon last night, and then an arrow showing where you can buy it locally! Oh, brave new world!
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For our delicious pepperoni pizza...
"could be pretty hand just as you try to squeeze" (Score:2)
this is going to be fun to hack (Score:1)
I'll bet a bunch of kids in middle school are busy doing that right now.
Red means Go Dog Go!
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I'll bet a bunch of kids in middle school are busy doing that right now.
Red means Go Dog Go!
You haven't been around middle schoolers lately?
Projected penises.
You should *NOT* be projecting.... (Score:4, Insightful)
If you want to help the motorist with tech like this, put a HUD inside of the car that will show the necessary info on the windshield to the driver, because there is no reason for anyone outside of the car to see that shit.
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I think there are fair arguments about not distracting other drivers. But one thing nice about this vs. a HUD is that it actually projects imagery onto the surface you're supposedly to be looking at -- you want to focus on the road in front of you generally so seeing directional markings there is completely natural and doesn't require a change in visual focus or the distraction of having to look through a HUD's imagery to the road beyond.
Some potential ideas to make is less distracting for others -- don't
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What happened to rain-hiding headlights? (Score:3)
I'm more impressed by this proof-of-concept from a few years ago, of headlights which could selectively de-illuminate individual raindrops and improve visibility in rain (or so was claimed) by 50% even at 90km/h.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Lulz (Score:2)
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When really all it is mostly used for is to sell stuff.
Television was promoted as something that was going to show concerts and informative classes to the masses.
Same with the internet
Now granted, selling stuff often does make people safer, happier, etc., but still
these headlights are going to be providing advertisements to the driver.
And in driverless cars, they'll be showing ads to
Or... (Score:2)
Or you could just make a car that drives itself. Either way.
Safe passing box (Score:2)
As a cyclist I would like a system for myself that could mark the minimum safe passing distance to my side.
If it also included a high powered offensive laser for intruders then that would be a bonus!
How long until the first ads? (Score:5, Insightful)
The most important part (Score:2)
The signs are mostly a gimmick. The important part is to identify other vehicles to avoid dazzling them while keeping everything else well lit by main beams.
Hundreds of millions of people with reduced night vision that cannot (or should not) drive at night will be able to do it safely.
I want ... (Score:2)
#mercedesstanowskiego (Score:1)
btw.
https://www.facebook.com/hasht... [facebook.com]
#mercedesstanowskiego
Use google translate for reading. Mercedes social meda (and real media) fail for fun and (lack of) profit.
Hook it up to the GPS (Score:2)
And have it display the names of streets that are coming up if you have the option turned on. Not really required if you have your phone or a GPS system in your car but it would look cool which is basically what this system is about. The only thing that I can see being useful is the lines being projected showing the width of the car. The rest seems kind of pointless.