Comments on: Nightvision car heads up display

By: make

make — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:28:15 +0000

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By: ronald

ronald — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:25:50 +0000

the nitemax dont work as well as in real life and it dont atach to video camcorders, ts far bright like daylight but is not as near bright when used on tv with thelights all he way up its dim

By: Lucas

Lucas — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 11:43:57 +0000

Solemn article. It make me lost in thoughts.

By: sackofcatfood

sackofcatfood — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:29:39 +0000

Here’s an idea: project two infrared grids in front of the car, having two associated cameras, and then post-process them to create left and right images for IR goggles. The result would be a 3D mesh with depth perception.

The reflective properties of the road guides may even be distinguishable enough that you could paint them a proper color in the display… which I think could be good enough to drive safely (apart from other people not seeing you) without headlights.

By: shotgunefx

shotgunefx — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 09:41:34 +0000

@LeZandre

So my IR fogs weren't a bad idea? LOL, I missed this development.

@dan
Doesnt'work that well, ghosting of the screen.

By: dan

dan — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 23:24:46 +0000

or instead of trying to display it on the windshield, you could mount a monitor in your visor, or just wear the night vision goggles, hahaha

By: dan

dan — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 23:20:42 +0000

i suggest you tint your windshield to cancel out the reflections.

By: shotgunefx

shotgunefx — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:28:29 +0000

@fartface

Actually, it's a pretty decent b&w camera, the imager is used by a lot of backyard astronomers, but the main reason the Nitemax came up was there was a boatload of them cheap from someone who bought a lot of them when they were discontinued.

$25 or whatever it was vs thousands. It was worth a shot. This is actually another large 17 page thread on it as well.

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/general-hardware-discussion/68370-night-vision-car-2.html

There's also several things going on here (or were) with the Nitemax.

1. Decent & Cheap cameras for onboard CCTV
2. Possible use as a visual supplement for driving.
3. Using the LCD as a cheap tiny VGA monitor.
4. Making a cheap HUD for a Car PC.

There are also 4 variants of the Nitemax CCDs, 2 B&W and 2 Color.

By: LeZandre

LeZandre — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:00:45 +0000

@ fartface

You seem to be neglecting the fact that Mercedes is using the same technology in it's nightvision systems.
They overcame the "washing out" by using visible- light filters. Have a look at the Oerlikon Optics NightVisionâ¢ filter.

http://www.oerlikon.com/ecomaXL/index.php?site=OPTICS_EN_press_releases_detail&udtx_id=4143

But I do like BMW's solution (with the thermal camera) better. A way to implement this in your car would be to install a PathFindIR.

http://www.eurasia.flir.com/dve/

By the way: NiteMax comes in a colour version as well.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 04:53:48 +0000

So, is anyone into this CarPC hobby? Seems like you can do some pretty cool things. Think I might get into it once I get a car this June.

By: Martin H

Martin H — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:26:31 +0000

There are two problems:
Windscreens for cars with HUD have a special interlayer (already mentioned in the forum) and the projection unit uses some kind of polarization. So the projected image is only visible to the driver. You could try to put a polarizer behind the suggested piece of Plexi.
Installing the camera inside the car won’t give good results. The main problem you have mit modern cars is their infrared blocking windshield. They are designed to reflect or absorb the infrared portion (or a part of it) of the sunlight. Maybe you can compensate it by increasing amplification. But this increases the problem of scattered light. You have to enclose the room between camera and windscreen.

By: mike dd

mike dd — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:32:51 +0000

my first thought was why doesn’t he get the parts from a caddy? they invested all that time and money already. just retro fit to your vehicle of choice.

By: fartface

fartface — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:53:22 +0000

crappy choice. the Nitemaxx is a simple B&W ccd camera with the IR filter removed and quite a few IR emitters, you cant get any decent images at a distance needed for a car. Best bet would be to find a crashed Caddilac with the thermal imaging camera system in it and retrofit it to your car.

Also the nitemaxx would be washed out HARD in front of a car as you have 2 65 watt IR floodlights on the front of every car blasting everything with IR and visible light.

Did any of these guys even TRY it without chopping up the car? Even a starlight scope is 100% useless aiming out the front of a car, you need a thermal imaging camera to do anything useful like that.

By: regomodo

regomodo — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:34:54 +0000

@dok

http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/stealth.asp

By: Wolf

Wolf — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:09:10 +0000

“I do not want to use any tint or film on the glass that would noticeably diminish the opacity of the glass”

shouldn’t that be increase?