https://www.electronicsweekly.com/news/business/ti-introduces-dlp-headlights-2018-01/
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#1 junkcollector:
I got a demo of this technology close to about 10 years ago from TI. Their "killer app" in the lab was a pairing of the DLP with their DSPs to track rain while driving and reduce illumination of rain drops such that glare to the driver was substantially reduced. It was in a lab, but it worked surprisingly well.
Another thing that many people don't realize is that TI makes a huge number of automotive parts currently with extremely tight reliability controls in place for customers like Toyota, as well as established supply chains from silicon to road via companies like Temic automotive.
Personally, I hope TI continues to develop DLP into new markets. The tech is really cool, their miniaturized projectors using laser sources for embedding into smartphones is another demo I saw that would be really interesting if it ever hits market.
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#2 post_break:
If we can't have adaptive high beams [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSI-NVD1who] in the US we definitely can't have DLP. DOT for headlights in the US is awful. There should be revamped laws for headlights. When the base model has better output with terrible reflector technology than halogen projector you've screwed up the regulations.
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/news/desktopnews/more-than-half-of-...
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#3 u801e:
It would be nice if the US would update their headlamp beam pattern standards to be in line with the rest of the world. They allow low beams with insufficient beam width (leading people to use their fog lamps to address the issue), to much glare for oncoming traffic (lack of an asymmetric cutoff), and high beams that are limited to half the hotspot intensity. Also the fact that they require a manual switch between low and high beam prevents the introduction of more advanced vehicle lighting systems that are available in the rest of the world.
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#4 phkahler:
I had this idea more than a decade ago but for another reason. If you're driving in heavy snow, the headlights light up large flakes near the car and make it hard to see beyond them. If you add another light at a non-visible wavelength and an image sensor whose pixels can be mapped to the DPL light at very high frame rates, you could turn off the visible lighting that illuminates the big bright snow flakes. Suddenly the stuff you want to see in the distance would be more visible. When I first thought of it, resolution seemed OK but frame rate would probably not have been high enough. I recently revisited the idea and it seems entirely possible today.
Snow Lights.
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#5 todd8:
TI's DLP technology, used in 85% of digital cinema displays, utilizes a matrix of tiny articulated mirrors, one for each pixel. Each of these mirrors has two controllable positions (for example +17 degrees and -17 degrees). A separate light source (LED, laser, etc.) shines on the matrix, and the mirrors within the matrix at one of the orientations reflect light at the target. These devices have been used in projection systems since 1997. See [1] and [2].
The advantage in automotive applications is that the light can be bright enough for automotive applications while allowing the illuminated area to be controlled through software. Illumination levels and regions can be modulated in response to the car's speed, steering, location, recognition of oncoming cars, etc. [3]
[1] http://www.ti.com/dlp-chip/getting-started.html
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#6 todd8:
I noticed on the TI DLP product web page for automotive [1] that heads up displays are another intended use. I've driven my daughter's car and really like color heads up display in her vehicle--It took a few minutes to get used. The ability to see the essential GPS information floating ahead in my field of view was far less distracting than having to look down at the instrument panel to read it.
[1] http://www.ti.com/dlp-chip/automotive/applications/applicati...
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#7 cjsuk:
This sounds expensive and unreliable and will just result in very expensive headlight assemblies that have to be replaced entirely. Also inability to get the parts to fix them a decade down the line.
This is already a problem with some vehicles with relatively simple lamp assemblies.
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#8 mschuster91:
DLPs are sensitive enough for shock and alignment issues when in a projector - how are they planning to do this with a car?!
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#9 tinus_hn:
Great, now you can pay for your car to project ads onto the road!
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#10 westmeal:
I imagine instead of making headlights easier to replace it's going to skyrocket in price and run off of closed source software. Why would this be a good addition for cars?
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#11 jordache:
why would you want a specific shape to be projected by your headlights? Having a sharp level of light beam defined, I agree.
Why would you want shape? You want everything to be lit up in front of the vehicle. This would hold true even for autonomous vehicles, where you blast the area in front of you with some wavelength of light.