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Night
Vision helps the driver detect objects long before the
car’s headlightswould illuminate them.
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A
magnified view of the pyroelectric detector employed within
the Night Vision system.
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Night Vision allows the
driver to see well beyond the reach of the car's headlights.
This technology helps drivers detect and avoid potentially
dangerous situations.
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Using a version of the technology being developed for the
military, Marlow has created a thermoelectric solution for the
infrared sensors used to provide the night vision system used by
Cadillac. Raytheon Systems Company developed the infrared camera
which, when mounted on a vehicle, can detect objects on the road
beyond the reach of the car’s headlights.
How it works
As the camera collects
infrared energy (photons), that unit of energy hits a pixel in the
apparatus. Like a television, the apparatus is comprised of many
pixels. When the photon hits a pixel, it changes the temperature of
that pixel and its capacitance. The camera integrates a read-out of
all the capacitors and projects an image on a display in the
driver’s windshield. In order to function, the device must stay
within a very narrow temperature range — a capability Marlow has
been perfecting for nearly three decades.
It takes some time to get used to night vision. Note that
Cadillac markets night vision as a “secondary” system, meaning
drivers still must get most information about the road in front of
them visually, via the headlights. In fact, to keep night vision
secondary, the night vision display is positioned as a peripheral
device in the windshield. While it can be moved up and down within a
range, it cannot become the central view for the driver out the
windshield.
It can be a distraction at first, until you condition yourself to
look out the windshield normally, and only intermittently refer to
that black-and-white, head-up display screen. Once this becomes
habit, you instantly recognize the benefit of night vision and
quickly realize just how much additional visual information you were
missing.
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