Forum for Science, Industry and Business

New night-vision system reduces car accidents

This is largely due to the reduced visual acuity and field of vision at night as a consequence of the illumination from the headlights — these factors are currently being studied by a group of researchers from the Department of Computer Architecture and Technology [http://atc.ugr.es/] at the University of Granada [http://www.ugr.es].

This group created an electronic system that significantly improves driving ability at night by using information extracted automatically from night visors. Researchers are working within a European project called DRIVSCO, whose participants include researchers from different countries who work on real-time vision and its application to the car industry. The study conducted at UGR [http://www.ugr.es] developed a microchip which, when installed in a car, makes it easier to extract the information from cameras to elements involved in driving (bends, pedestrians, cars, etc.) which may be present on the road. In other words, this system will inform drivers by means of visual, acoustic or other signs about the obstacles appearing in their way, making intelligent cars even more sophisticated than is currently the case.

Improving visibility

The researcher who carried out this study is Eduardo Ros Vidal, who explained that the aim of this chip is to support the illumination of the car, which is insufficient for ideal vision. “Dipped headlights only illuminate about 56 meters when the breaking distance at 100 km/h is about 80 meters,” says Professor Ros Vidal. The system created by his group uses two infrared cameras placed on the car which record the scene even further than the illumination of conventional headlights. Therefore, the chip extracts information about factors such as movement or depth in real time to improve the detection of specific elements and situations of interest.

Current artificial vision systems use this basic information to detect objects, pedestrians, bends etc. For instance, the system generates information about the depth of the scene in real time codifying the distance of every object — warm colours for close objects (reddish and more dangerous) and cold colours for distant objects (bluish and safer). The system also processes real-time movements, indicating the direction in which the object moves in the scene and how everything changes due to the movement of the car.

Other participants in DRIVSCO include the University of Münster (Germany), which is currently studying where drivers look when driving by using eye-tracking systems. This project is the continuation of ECOVISION, which also focused on the development of Advanced Driving Assistant Systems (ADAS), which are currently applied to high range cars and which will undoubtedly be improved thanks to the progress of DRIVSCO.

Antonio Marín Ruiz | alfa
Further information:
http://prensa.ugr.es/prensa/research/index.php

Im Focus: Spider silk key to new bone-fixing composite

University of Connecticut researchers have created a biodegradable composite made of silk fibers that can be used to repair broken load-bearing bones without the complications sometimes presented by other materials.

Repairing major load-bearing bones such as those in the leg can be a long and uncomfortable process.

Im Focus: Writing and deleting magnets with lasers

Study published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces is the outcome of an international effort that included teams from Dresden and Berlin in Germany, and the US.

Scientists at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) together with colleagues from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the University of Virginia...

Im Focus: Gamma-ray flashes from plasma filaments

Novel highly efficient and brilliant gamma-ray source: Based on model calculations, physicists of the Max PIanck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg propose a novel method for an efficient high-brilliance gamma-ray source. A giant collimated gamma-ray pulse is generated from the interaction of a dense ultra-relativistic electron beam with a thin solid conductor. Energetic gamma-rays are copiously produced as the electron beam splits into filaments while propagating across the conductor. The resulting gamma-ray energy and flux enable novel experiments in nuclear and fundamental physics.

The typical wavelength of light interacting with an object of the microcosm scales with the size of this object. For atoms, this ranges from visible light to...

Im Focus: Basel researchers succeed in cultivating cartilage from stem cells

Stable joint cartilage can be produced from adult stem cells originating from bone marrow. This is made possible by inducing specific molecular processes occurring during embryonic cartilage formation, as researchers from the University and University Hospital of Basel report in the scientific journal PNAS.

Certain mesenchymal stem/stromal cells from the bone marrow of adults are considered extremely promising for skeletal tissue regeneration. These adult stem...

Im Focus: Like a wedge in a hinge

Researchers lay groundwork to tailor drugs for new targets in cancer therapy

In the fight against cancer, scientists are developing new drugs to hit tumor cells at so far unused weak points. Such a “sore spot” is the protein complex...