Drivers make over 90 percent of their decisions on the basis of visual information. Among the many difficult scenarios on the road, driving at night or through tunnels presents the biggest challenges for the driver and - for the electronic assistance systems presently being developed. The high-dynamic-range CMOS (HDRC) sensors and high speed cameras provide more information than the eye can see not only because of their extremely wide dynamic range beyond 1,000,000:1 but also because of their sensitivity in the visible and near-infrared spectrum and because of their speed of 100 ns per pixel. For the first time, one image sensor can now record simultaneously, in the same frame without being blinded, an oncoming vehicle with intense high beams together with the faint returns from a pedestrian in the distant dark, who is illuminated with the observer's own near-infrared headlights.
Abstract