To DO

Hello Guys! Smoochies from NYC...

We have quite a bit to get done before 12/19, So here goes:

1. We need a rendering of a car and basic environment- Christian and Chantal
2. We need stats, studies, images on pedestrian safety in low light conditions, place and different weather conditions day and night. -Chelsea and Darlene
3. We need to discuss vision and light in simple terms and relate vision to each scenario. -Darlene
4. We need to summarize the technology that we are using. -Chelsea and Darlene
5. We need an animation of a driving scenario that involves the transition of sun glare to a snowy night. -Kristina and Christian
6. We need scenario renderings. -Chelsea and Darlene

TO DO

Situation

Board Renderings
City-Night? Chantal-optional
Night
Night - Rain
Night - Cars Passing each other
Night - Fog
Day - Rain
Day - Sun Glare
Day - Snow

Animation-Regular Day Transition between (Sunny- Darkwindshield Night Snow)

signal - parking cars - pedestrians

Rain situation

Problems:

1. Water directly on the windsheeld
- Special coating for the windsheeld that reduce the rawness of the glass. One solution form Degussa.
- The Mecedes C-Class sportscar is using a special bar at the a-column useing the airflow
to lead the rainwater over the hole car. The back window is useing a rubber lib to keep the glass clean.
- Rain sensor to controll the windscreen wiper. A system from Hella could recognize weatherconditions like rain, light, solarlight and fogging.



2. Raindrops in the air, between other road users
- Adaptive dark-bright-border from hella


3. Water on the street reflect light form other road users

- Polarizationfilter inside of the windsheeld
- Road marking that work with waterfilm on it. Glas bead that are embedded in the marking reflect the drivinglight. The road marking must be designed in a way, that just a small waterfilm is over the glas beads.


One solution to avoid a thick waterfilm is the usage of Agglomeraten that create a big difference of level.
4. Longer Reactiontime
The time a driver need to recognize a pedestrian on the road depense on the contrast between the object (pedestrian) and the background. The contrast is reduced by other lightsources like road lightning, reflections on the street and water drops on the wind shield. If the reflection degree is the same between object and background it's harder for the driver to identificate the object. In this context is xenon is a good source, because of it high contrast. On a daytime driving situation the contrast is automaticly high. In a night situation the contrast is very low.

read the PDF here.

dusk/night - city - colour&visibility - outlines

night times city

PROGRESS

Hi Everyone,

So, just to sum up our meeting this evening...

FYI: High Ambient Light= Urban Low Ambient Light= Rural

WEATHER

WINTER: Oled paint covers entire surface in lime yellow light, windshield becomes darker during times of high sun glare.
SUN GLARE: Oled paint turns into matte finish, windshield becomes darker during times of high sun glare.
DUSK: Oled Paint covers entire surface in lime yellow light. Low Level emittance.
RAIN: Oled paint turns into matte finish, very low light levels. position and color to be researched further.
FOG: Oled “band” around lower portion of car emits medium level of lumens to make car more visible to pedestrians
and other drivers. Also, partial light-emitting panels on front illuminate road ahead for driver, without causing
scattering of light.
NIGHTIME: Low Ambient: Low to Medium lumen intensity over entire surface, High Ambient Low lumen intensity with
partial coverage [light stripes], special scenario with heightened visibility of car for pedestrians crossing the street.ACTIVATED BY:

WINTER: Precipitation, weight of particles, temperature. [ Measures Light-Levels at Night]
SUN GLARE: Light levels
DUSK: Light Levels
RAIN: Temperature, Precipitation, weight of particles [ Measures Light-Levels at Night]
FOG: Precipitation. [ Measures Light-Levels at Night]
NIGHTIME: Light Levels

pattern

Fog

Dusk/Dawn Scenario

Day Scenario

Group resource of studies on driving at night in clear weather, fog, rain and snow

Too much data to read and summarize…..skim the following and determine if it’s helpful for your scenario:

http://www.tfhrc.gov/safety/hsis/pubs/envseries.htm

FOG

WINTER DRIVING

Nissan Concept: Multi-functional Headlight Unit

The Nissan Hurricane Li-Ion features an innovative patented single multi-functional headlight unit. The headlight assembly was designed to reduce costs - it can be mounted both at the front and at the rear - and make cable connections easier.
It consists of a single headlight unit and a light beam reduction system made of dichroic parabolas which operate both transversally and longitudinally. The unit integrates both the low and high beam functions which can be automatically switched between by adjusting the light beam angle and direction. Another system measures the curve radius and vehicle speed, and adjusts the direction of the front units accordingly, providing an adaptive lighting system which improves visibility.

The unit is the same for both the front headlights and the rear tail lights. When mounted at the front, it incorporates an anti-fog radar, a system that detects irregularities of the road surface, two side cameras, parking sensors, alarm.
When mounted at the rear, it includes reversing light, polarized anti-fog light, anti-fog radar, parking sensors and a rear camera. Like the front module, even the rear unit is adjustable in direction.

Additional auxiliary systems such as indicator lights can be controlled through a wireless connection.
www.carbodydesign.com

Inclement Weather Conditions

The essential problem with forward lighting while driving in inclement weather is that of reflected light from snow, rain and fog particles toward the vehicle driver. This reflected light decreases visibility by reducing contrast and by contributing to glare that can lead to fatigue and thus to a higher likelihood of accidents

relevant factors in visibility and distraction
- light source mounting location
- aiming angle
- beam spread
- spectral power distribution (colour)

Further information on the factors in this file
www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/transportation/pdf/PAL/PAL2001-bullough.pdf

LED Lamps Adapt to Weather Conditions

New Intelligent AFL (Adaptive Forward Lighting) system debut on the Opel (Vauxhall in the UK) Insignia in summer 2008 with LED daytime running lamps.

The headlights sense where light is needed most and change their pattern to suit the location, speed of the vehicle and the weather conditions.

9 lighting functions
- Adverse Weather Light
- Pedestrian Area Light
- Town Light
- Country Road Light
- Highway Light
- Static Cornering Light
- Dynamic Curve Light
- High Beam Light
- High Beam Light Assistant

For further information on the lighting functions please take a look at this document
www.gmeurope.info/insignia/downloads/opel/en/doc/EN_01_Lighting_Summary.doc

Adaptive light during night (47 sec)

LED Signature/Dynamic Headlight (16 sec)
www.vauxhall.co.uk

Explained version of Opels AFL on youtube (3:44 min)

There is around 33 percent less traffic on the roads at night, the risk of fatal accidents in twilight or darkness is twice as high as during the day.

First Visualization

hi all!
just did a first try by 'illuminating' existing carbodies in street scenes following idea of biggest contrast to environment and 'as less light ass possible'

OLED and Luminous Flux

Osram has obtained an efficiency of 46 lm/watt and are hoping to be able to deliver 500 lumens for 10 watts in 2009.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS132256+17-Mar-2008+BW20080317

Spreadable OLED

http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/15/researchers-tout-spreadable-self-powered-oleds/

Mitsubishi Chemical and Sumitomo Chemical are working on self-sustaining spreadable electronics - liquids containing molecules of the type used in OLED screens. Engineers like Tokitaro Hoshijima at Mitsubishi Chemical and others are working on a “molecular soup” that can be spread anywhere then dried to leave residue that is 100 nm thick – a basis for their solar cell.
Researchers at Sumitomo Chemical created an organic solution – a spreadable liquid base that can be sprayed onto a surface to form an OLED screen. This could be applied directly or be a film and combined with the solar cells above means it wouldn’t have to be plugged in. This product would take light, turn it into electricity and provide a controllable display.
Both Mitsubishi and Sumitomo are hoping to have workable prototypes within the next two years.
Source:
http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/future-tech/spreadable-electronics-to-one-day-power-themselves-368339
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/15/researchers-tout-spreadable-self-powered-oleds/
http://www.goodcleantech.com/2008/05/spreadable_oled_displays_and_s.php

Advantages and Disadvantages of OLEDs

Advantages of OLEDs:
Thinner, lightweight, brighter, flexible, more efficient, easier to produce, no size constraints, large viewing fields

Disadvantages of OLEDs:
Blue organics (14,000 hours) have a shorter live span than red and green (46,000-230,000 hours)
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled5.htm

My thoughts - This may significantly impact the purity of the white light source over time and the products ability to deliver a wide range of colors? However, this problem will probably be solved within the next few years.
Can water damage the OLEDs?

TOLED – Transparent OLED

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled4.htm

TOLEDs use a “proprietary transparent contact to create displays that can be made to be top-only emitting, bottom-only emitting, or both top and bottom emitting (transparent)…70% transparent when turned off – TOLEDs may be integrated into car windshields, windows, eyewear and may be used with other opaque substrates for top-emitting devices.
http://www.oled-info.com/glossary

FOLED – Flexible OLED

http://www.oled-info.com/glossary
FOLEDs are OLEDs built on flexible substrates. For more links to sites with OLED info:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled7.htm

Types of OLEDs

There are many types of OLEDs – see list and diagrams:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled3.htm
For a glossary on OLED types and production types, see:
http://www.oled-info.com/glossary
For our project we’ll probably focus on FOLEDs and TOLEDs. UDC (Universal Display Corporation) owns a patent on both types.

How OLEDs Emit Light

OLEDs emit light by electrophosphorescence. For more on the process see:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled2.htm

OLED Technologies

How OLED’s work

Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED’s) are “solid-state devices composed of thin films of organic molecules that create light with the application of electricity”. OLED’s use less power than LED’s and LCD displays.
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled.htm
For more on OLED’s – how they work and the manufacturing process – see the following site:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled1.htm