Adaptive headlights?
I was searching the web for "motorcycle bank angle detection" because, for a few years now, I've been thinking it must be possible to have your headlights aim into a turn when you lean into sharp turn on twisty mountain roads.
Seems I'm behind the curve (ahem) yet again.
CORNER ADAPTING MOTORCYCLE HEADLIGHT
Matt Caparso, John Fernandez, Melissa Patterson, Anthony Pino
Abstract
The purpose of this project is to improve the ability of a motorcycle's headlight to correctly illuminate the roadway on turns. Since motorcycles need to bank or lean in order to turn, the aim of the headlight beam becomes obscured and inadequate around curves. This lighting problem can present a safety hazard to riders at night. We plan to design a control system to sense the motorcycle's dynamic behavior, predict its current situation and manipulate the aim of the headlight's beam to best illuminate the roadway. We plan to solve this problem by sensing the motorcycle's bank angle and speed and use this data to manipulate the motorcycle's projector beam headlight. The result of the project will be a light which moves in reaction to the leaning motorcycle and corrects the beam aim quickly and accurately along two axes. This solution shall represent a working prototype of the technology, which can be marketable to motorcycle manufacturers to incorporate into new motorcycle design. Although this problem has been present since headlights were first put on motorcycles, we feel that it is now prudent to accept the challenge of correcting this problem thanks to the recent advances in sensor and microprocessor design.
http://www.cdsp.neu.edu/info/faculty/shafai/course/project2002_abstract.html
and
Actually, what I want is high-intensity projector beams that know where I'm looking, and adjust to focus on that spot (along with the normal fixed beams). That way, you get general illumination, along with bright illumination of whatever it is you are looking at. (This would have to be disabled when one is travelling down a road with other vehicles, of course. But it should be possible to automatically detect when there are no oncoming or leading cars...)
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