4 ms·

why would you want a specific shape to be projected by your headlights? Having a sharp level of light beam defined, I agree. Why would you want shape? You want

why would you want a specific shape to be projected by your headlights? Having a sharp level of light beam defined, I agree. Why would you want shape? You want everything to be lit up in front of the vehicle. This would hold true even for autonomous vehicles, where you blast the area in front of you with some wavelength of light.

zardo 9y ago
One obvious application, you want to poke holes in the image where faces (or other optical sensors) are to avoid reducing the visibility of others. Also communicating pedestrian locations to the driver.
- jordache 9y ago
  However you need to see pedestrians, other vehicles as clearly as possible.
  - zardo 9y ago
    You don't need to blind other road users. That's a bug with the headlight design, not a feature.
chillingeffect 9y ago
I understand your comment as the details of the usefulness are buried pretty deep. I had to dig down to the 2nd half of sentence #2 to get the answer: "while minimizing the glare to oncoming traffic or reflections from retroreflective traffic signs."
- jordache 9y ago
  >reflections from retroreflective traffic signs. So you mask out the stop sign in front of you, and that diminishes the visibility of the sign. Or the light masks the stop sign and lowers the intensity of light within that octagon? Then you have a camera from the perspective of each headlight, then what? You flood the scene with IR light? I guess it could work - It will require a lot of supporting technologies that TI is probably not in the position to develop.
  - chillingeffect 9y ago
    > TI is probably not in the position to develop. Once again, they've buried the details way deep down in this article, nearly impossible to find. In this outlandish case, I had to reach as far down as the 1st half of the second sentence which subtly discloses (emphasis mine): "Automakers and Tier-1 suppliers can use this new programmable ADB solution to design headlight systems"
  - amygdyl 9y ago
    Redisplay the stop sign in the (TI DLP) HUD. Outline pedestrians, similarly. Give me a distance, stopping reaction countdown, and alert me to children doubly so lest they suddenly break from adults. I would think that indication that pedestrians are facing towards or back to traffic is important for me to get quickly as well. This kind of information would greatly reduce my fatigue when driving long journeys through England's west country and any area with narrow twisting, often tree covered, roads.
- teh_klev 9y ago
  >I understand your comment as the details of the usefulness are buried pretty deep. I had to dig down to the 2nd half of sentence #2 to get the answer Now, now... https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Please don't insinuate that someone hasn't read an article.
avs733 9y ago
Lets start with the fact that you already have a specific shape in your headlights. Typically, driver and passenger side headlights have different reflector and beam shapes and are aimed differently. Think about the need you have for each headlight, they aren't really the same. The outside (shoulder side/passenger side) realistically has a greater need for 'spread' to light the side of the road and see things that could potentially quickly intrude on your space. It also is less likely to blind oncoming traffic because it is pointed slightly outward so the beam can be higher and broader. The inside (drivers side) headlight has pretty much the opposite needs. It is still important to an extent to light the other shoulder but you also want to avoid blinding oncoming drivers and will probably use that to illuminate further down the road. With this you could, theoretically, do something like create a hole in the beam that is 'off' to not blind oncoming drivers and tracks their location while leaving the headlights at a higher and safer level that increases driver vision. Add in that as you speed up and slow down and corner as you drive in both directions. That is why many cars already have headlights that shift as you turn, this is just the next logical step
teh_klev 9y ago
@post_break posted this link which is a good explanation (try to ignore the overly dramatic music and narrator's voice): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSI-NVD1who https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSI-NVD1who

zardo 9y ago

One obvious application, you want to poke holes in the image where faces (or other optical sensors) are to avoid reducing the visibility of others. Also communicating pedestrian locations to the driver.

jordache 9y ago
However you need to see pedestrians, other vehicles as clearly as possible.
- zardo 9y ago
  You don't need to blind other road users. That's a bug with the headlight design, not a feature.

chillingeffect 9y ago

I understand your comment as the details of the usefulness are buried pretty deep. I had to dig down to the 2nd half of sentence #2 to get the answer: "while minimizing the glare to oncoming traffic or reflections from retroreflective traffic signs."

jordache 9y ago
>reflections from retroreflective traffic signs. So you mask out the stop sign in front of you, and that diminishes the visibility of the sign. Or the light masks the stop sign and lowers the intensity of light within that octagon? Then you have a camera from the perspective of each headlight, then what? You flood the scene with IR light? I guess it could work - It will require a lot of supporting technologies that TI is probably not in the position to develop.
- chillingeffect 9y ago
  > TI is probably not in the position to develop. Once again, they've buried the details way deep down in this article, nearly impossible to find. In this outlandish case, I had to reach as far down as the 1st half of the second sentence which subtly discloses (emphasis mine): "Automakers and Tier-1 suppliers can use this new programmable ADB solution to design headlight systems"
- amygdyl 9y ago
  Redisplay the stop sign in the (TI DLP) HUD. Outline pedestrians, similarly. Give me a distance, stopping reaction countdown, and alert me to children doubly so lest they suddenly break from adults. I would think that indication that pedestrians are facing towards or back to traffic is important for me to get quickly as well. This kind of information would greatly reduce my fatigue when driving long journeys through England's west country and any area with narrow twisting, often tree covered, roads.
teh_klev 9y ago
>I understand your comment as the details of the usefulness are buried pretty deep. I had to dig down to the 2nd half of sentence #2 to get the answer Now, now... https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Please don't insinuate that someone hasn't read an article.

avs733 9y ago

Lets start with the fact that you already have a specific shape in your headlights. Typically, driver and passenger side headlights have different reflector and beam shapes and are aimed differently. Think about the need you have for each headlight, they aren't really the same. The outside (shoulder side/passenger side) realistically has a greater need for 'spread' to light the side of the road and see things that could potentially quickly intrude on your space. It also is less likely to blind oncoming traffic because it is pointed slightly outward so the beam can be higher and broader. The inside (drivers side) headlight has pretty much the opposite needs. It is still important to an extent to light the other shoulder but you also want to avoid blinding oncoming drivers and will probably use that to illuminate further down the road. With this you could, theoretically, do something like create a hole in the beam that is 'off' to not blind oncoming drivers and tracks their location while leaving the headlights at a higher and safer level that increases driver vision. Add in that as you speed up and slow down and corner as you drive in both directions. That is why many cars already have headlights that shift as you turn, this is just the next logical step

teh_klev 9y ago

@post_break posted this link which is a good explanation (try to ignore the overly dramatic music and narrator's voice): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSI-NVD1who https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSI-NVD1who