An automotive night vision system uses a thermographic camera to increase a driver's perception and seeing distance in darkness or poor weather beyond the reach of the vehicle's headlights. Such systems are offered as optional equipment on certain premium vehicles. The technology was first introduced in the year 2000 on the Cadillac Deville. This technology is based on the night vision devices (NVD), which generally denotes any electronically enhanced optical devices operate in three modes: image enhancement, thermal imaging, and active illumination. The automotive night vision system is a combination of NVDs such as infrared cameras, GPS, Lidar, and Radar, among others to sense and detect objects.
Display type
Instrument cluster using a high resolution liquid-crystal display (LCD), newest type navigation system or information screen, least expensive and with display's location further away from driver's field of vision (used exclusively by BMW, and the W212 E-class) windshield via head-up display, earliest type, dimmer knob can reduce brightness, display nearest to driver's line of sight
There are two types of systems, either passive or active systems, both have advantages and disadvantages when compared to the other. The passive system pertains to the technologies that detect thermal radiation emitted by humans, animals, and other objects in the road while the active systems illuminate objects as a significant distance ahead using infrared light sources.
Active systems
Active systems use an infrared light source built into the car to illuminate the road ahead with light that is invisible to humans. There are two kinds of active systems: gated and non-gated. The gated system uses a pulsed light source and a synchronized camera that enable long ranges (250m) and high performance in rain and snow.
Near Infrared wavelength is 0.75–1.4 µm is smaller and can pass between the typical fog particles. Fog particles sizes are typically 10 to 15 microns and ranges is sizes from 1 to 100 microns. Far infrared has a wavelength of 15 micrometers (µm) to 1 mm. During night-time operations, police officers with range gated near infrared cameras can read license plates at a distance of up to 1.2 km. Near Infrared (NIR) cameras are available to see 50 km through fog, haze, smoke, rain.
Pros: higher resolution image, superior picture of inanimate objects, works better in warmer conditions, smaller sensor can be mounted to rearview mirror. Cons: does not work as well in fog or rain, lower contrast for animals, shorter range of 150–200 meters or 500–650 feet
Mercedes-Benz
Night View Assist prototype was shown in 2003 on the Mercedes-Benz F500 concept.
Series production Night View Assist system introduced in 2005 on the redesigned Mercedes-Benz S-Class (W221). It was the first system to use the instrument cluster's LCD as a display.
2009: Night View Assist Plus added a pedestrian detection function calling the revised system on the redesigned Mercedes-Benz E-Class (W212) and refreshed S-class, however, the E-class uses the navigation screen's display.
2011: Night View Assist Plus with Spotlight Function premiere: the Mercedes-Benz CL-Class (C216) became the first series production car with night vision-guided pedestrian spotlighting (HID version) can flash at any pedestrians it detects in order to warn both the driver and the pedestrians. The flashing light is directed in such a way that vehicles in front and oncoming traffic are not dazzled.
2013: Night View Assist Plus with animal detection on the W222 S-Class.
Toyota
In 2002 Toyota Night View was the first worldwide series production active automotive night vision system, introduced on the Toyota Landcruiser Cygnus or Lexus LX470. This system uses the headlight projectors emitting near infrared light aimed like the car's highbeam headlights and a CCD camera then captures that reflected radiation, this signal is then processed by computer which produces a black-and-white image which is projected on the lower section of the windshield.
In February 2008 the Toyota Crown Hybrid added a feature which highlights pedestrians and presents them in a box on an LCD display in front of the driver. This was the first pedestrian detection feature for an active system.
In 2009, Lexus introduced Night View on the LS, but only in Japan.