Soon you will be able to control the headlight beams of your car with your line of sight. Engineers at Opel/Vauxhall are developing an eye tracking technology for car headlamps. The technology attempts to adjust the direction and the intensity of the headlights to follow the direction of the motorists’ sight.
The project is a collaboration between Opel/Vauxhall’s International Technical Development Center and the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.
This technology works using a simple webcam, peripheral infrared sensors, and central photo-diodes to scan the driver’s eyes more than 50 times per second. The system then translates the information into data commands for electronically-controlled actuators that align the vehicle’s headlamps. Headlamp actuators react almost instantly to make the adjustments. You will be able to aim your headlights precisely where you want to look both vertically and horizontally.
Even if the driver is distracted and has taken his or her eyes off the road, the lights won’t jerk around erratically. The headlights will continue to follow the direction of travel. The engineers equipped the eye tracking system with a ‘delay algorithm’ to ensure a suitably flowing movement for the light cone.
