High Beam that doesn't Dazzle Oncoming Drivers

[rangaraj]

Badly needed in India with everyone using high-beams!

BeamAtic Premium headlights let you keep your high beams on all night long
By Donald Melanson posted Aug 31st 2010 5:56PM
It looks like the highways of Japan could soon get a bit brighter -- at least if these new BeamAtic Premium head lights from Ichikoh Industries ever catch on. Developed by France's Valeo SA, the headlights make use of an on-board camera and some image processing software that tracks oncoming vehicles, and some movable dousers attached to the headlights that are able to deflect the light so it doesn't bother other drivers; the idea there being that you could simply leave your high beams on all the time without worrying about blinding anyone. No word on any plans for a release over here, but you'll apparently be able to get them in Japan next month, and the company is also reportedly looking to talk some Japanese automakers into offering them as a factory-installed option.

BeamAtic Premium headlights let you keep your high beams on all night long -- Engadget

[Sprucegoose]

Hey Guys,
Was surfing engadget and saw this

Source: Engadget

Link to Source: BeamAtic Premium headlights let you keep your high beams on all night long -- Engadget

It looks like the highways of Japan could soon get a bit brighter -- at least if these new BeamAtic Premium head lights from Ichikoh Industries ever catch on. Developed by France's Valeo SA, the headlights make use of an on-board camera and some image processing software that tracks oncoming vehicles, and some movable dousers attached to the headlights that are able to deflect the light so it doesn't bother other drivers; the idea there being that you could simply leave your high beams on all the time without worrying about blinding anyone. No word on any plans for a release over here, but you'll apparently be able to get them in Japan next month, and the company is also reportedly looking to talk some Japanese automakers into offering them as a factory-installed option.

Should Be mandatory out here man, except that it might detect a person running across as an incoming vehicle and block all light falling on him.

[issigonis]

Interesting and valuable find Shekhar.

India needs it and how!
All manufacturers should figure out how to accommodate this technology in their lighting. May be a few years down the road for us..

[pranavt]

Originally Posted by Sprucegoose

Should Be mandatory out here man, except that it might detect a person running across as an incoming vehicle and block all light falling on him.
[/left]

Or a car that is coming the wrong way.

[Epic]

Very interesting technology. But does this technology work only for oncoming traffic or also for traffic ahead of you?

For example, if this applies to only oncoming traffic then that would be a good thing for that driver but a nuisance for traffic ahead of you. But if it applies to both, it will probably be good for both; the oncoming driver and the driver ahead of you, but will be very dangerous for the one driving as we may not see the vehicle in front of us until its too late and we know how taxis, rickshaws & trucks in India drive without any lights working.

[bottle]

Looks good, hope it trickles down and becomes common especially here where we have unlit highways and commercial traffic install stadium floodlights on their vehicles

[greenhorn]

This has been discussed even earlier than that, and a bhpian had also talked about an indigenous solution.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...eadlights.html (Auto-dipping headlights)

[Gandhi]

The amount of traffic we have on our roads, the on-board sensor will always decide to keep the headlamps switched off .

[Zappo]

Hmmm. No doubts the discussion is on the same genre of product but looks like this one is real high street in terms of technology. Let it run here as a separate discussion for now. We may later revisit this merging request.

[febyphilabr]

@Rangaraj:

Good to hear this!

But I think its already available in India!! I had seen something of this sort at the Hyundai Service Centre - Trivandrum, two weeks ago. It was labelled as 'Auto Headlight Dipper'!

They said that it could be attached to any Hyundai ride!!

[Sprucegoose]

Originally Posted by pranavt

Or a car that is coming the wrong way.

Hahhahaa... just visualising that.
the police report will be hilarious.

[Rastapopoulos]

Just some wierd thoughts which I could not understand based on whatever I read so far.

Look at the picture



Assume the Red spot is a dog/Puddle/Stone/Drunk guy sleeping on the road etc
Now wont it be too late to see him once he comes out of the shadow region (he might never come out of the shadow region in situations). all you feel is a Bump/Scream/Blood or a man on your screen. . . Jokes apart IMHO this really need to have some facility for the above situation else can be hazzardous.

Also add to it multiple Vehicles coming from the other side and there are rayes of lights and shadow zones created. Something like a Zebra light

[Sprucegoose]

The High beam will get cut to low beam, so visibility will not be affected too badly.
Chances of not seeing that guy/dog [red dot] will be as much if you were on low beam.

And you never know, Zebra light might become fashionable much like High Colour temperature HIDs

[Zappo]

I do not think it is as simple as switching over to low beam. This thing looks like someone thought of firing a canon to kill a mosquito.

Read the first post... It uses some movable dousers (whatever that means) to very cleverly deflect the headlight beams. Looks like it also uses camera, image processing software etc. Lot of high tech stuff, but to what avail that I don't know.

Read carefully. It does not dip the headlight. It 'deflects' them so that Hi Beam is always on!

[leadf00t]

I doubt this will be of any use in our Traffic conditions . These technologies are good and can be visualed only in a scenarios where there is a single vehicle or maybe in the stretch illuminated by the lights.

I will be interesting to see how this functionality works in city traffic or fast moving traffic with too many vehicle to process and deflect light from.

Eventually the judgement of using a high beam will lie on the driver , which unfortunately is very bad in Indian conditions.