Display gives clear night-sight
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• A display system, claimed to pick out pedestrians and obstacles in the dark "better than full-beam headlights" and project their images onto the windscreen, could be available to hauliers within three years.
So far the system, developed by night-vision specialists Thales Optronics, has only been fitted to a military truck and a Jaguar S-type car. However, Thales confirmed that they would be very keen to offer it to the CV market. The system was developed from the head-up displays used in aircraft.
Thales claims it will offer significant safety benefits: "We've found that in a car it gives you an extra 200m of vision—you can see things earlier and better," says Tim Orr, who helped develop the display. "It is also better than using dipped headlights in foggy conditions."
Sensors pick up any infrared light that is bounced back from objects and translate this into the display which is projected onto the windscreen directly over the image you see lit up by the headlights.
Researchers found that when infrared images of surroundings were projected onto a screen, drivers were almost three times as likely to see distant adult figures.
• In 1999, MOO people tied in road accidents in Britain—and death is twice as Nicely at night.