Honda sees in the dark

Honda has developed a new night vision system that warns drivers about pedestrians at the side of the road – even if you can’t see them.

The new systems uses two infrared cameras to detect heat sources in the cars path and then an intelligent system analyses the images, not only looking for the shape of people but checking how far away they are and whether they are moving in to the road.

A continuous night vision picture is then displayed on the dashboard and pedestrians are highlighted with a green box and an audible alert is sounded.

The system is currently only available in Japan as an option for the Honda Legend car but it is not unfeasible that it could be fitted to bikes, with head-up displays in helmets expected to be available very soon.

German Helmet manufacturer Schuberth is currently developing a headup display that it expects to be available in 2006, while US firm Sportvue has developed a clip on display that can be fitted to any helmet. The device will ship to the US in November but won’t be available in the UK until it passes EU safety regulations.

Check out the October 27 edition of MCN for a full report on all the latest technological helmet developments.

Click here to watch a video of the new Honda system in operation

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