Pedestrian Detection with near and far Infrared Night Vision Enhancement

Abstract

Current headlighting and road lighting are only partly effective in reducing the risk of driving at night. To further reduce this risk, two major sensing technologies for night vision systems have been receiving particular development interest: near infrared (NIR) systems, which actively illuminate the scene in the near infrared spectrum and capture the reflected radiation, and far infrared (FIR) systems, which generate images by passively detecting thermal emissions. To compare pedestrian detection with night vision systems, a test vehicle equipped with an NIR and an FIR system was driven at night on several roads with pedestrians standing along the route. Video clips, recorded from both systems simultaneously, were later shown in a laboratory to 16 subjects (eight younger than 30 years and eight older than 64 years). Subjects pressed a button as soon as they saw each pedestrian. Detection distances with FIR were, on average, three times greater than with NIR. For both systems, detection distances of younger subjects were about 1.7 greater than of older drivers. The effectiveness of night vision systems can be expected to depend on inherent advantages of either technology as well as the details of implementation. To the extent that the two systems used in this experiment reasonably represent the respective technologies, the results support the expected enhancement of pedestrian detection in FIR systems.

Keywords:

• Night vision
• Near Infrared
• Far Infrared