A NIR based system for night vision improvement

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A NIR based system for night vision improvement

Knoll, P.M.

Driver assistance systems help to reduce the number of accidents. In particular, night vision improvement systems can help to come closer to the goal of collision mitigation since 40% of all fatal accidents occur at night while only 20% of traffic happens at night. (Situation in Germany). At Robert Bosch a NIR based system is currently under development. It uses near infrared radiation from the modified halogen headlight. The picture is detected with a Video camera with a new nonlinear imager with a high dynamic range, being currently under development. The range of the system is in the range of 150 to 200 m at good sight (no fog or heavy rain). The advantage of this combination is on the one hand a better performance compared to the FIR system because road limit lines are seen clearly at a wide range and thus a differentiation of objects within or outside the lane can be made. On the other hand the video camera being used for night vision improvement purposes can be used during day time as well, and has a high potential for other vision based safety and comfort functions like lane departure warning (day and night), traffic sign recognition (difficult in the US), ACC Stop/Go and others.