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To ensure adequate visibility without excessive glare, vehicle headlights are designed to use a specific source of illumination. The optical designs of headlights gather the luminous flux produced by the light source to produce a useful beam pattern that meets the relevant requirements and standards for vehicle forward lighting. With the advent of solid state, light emitting diode sources for general illumination, an increasing number of LED replacement headlight bulb products has emerged over the past decade. In most cases, these LED replacement bulbs are not permitted for legal use on public roadways, but some countries have begun to permit specific LED replacement bulbs to be used legally on the road for specific makes, models and production years of certain vehicles. If they can be demonstrated to produce a beam pattern that meets the photometric requirements for a legal headlight, they are permitted to be used legally for on-road use.

Flashing emergency and warning lights are critical elements of public safety and traffic control during roadway incidents. These lights should not only alert drivers to their presence, but also should inform them of who and what is present on the scene, and should help to manage the responses of drivers as they navigate past the incident. First responder and driver safety depend upon all three of these functions, yet standards focus almost entirely on alerting drivers. A full-scale outdoor field study was carried out during daytime, during nighttime on dry pavement and during nighttime on wet pavement, using a mock-up roadside scene containing three police vehicles. The lights on the vehicles were adjusted to produce different levels of intensity, flash rate, and synchronization of lights across all three vehicles. In some cases, sequentially flashing lights were present.

The current development of automotive lighting strives towards more and more lighting installations on vehicles. Additionally, to that, manufacturers start animating these lighting installations as coming home or leaving home greetings from the car to the driver. In a previous paper we have shown, that these additional animations are in fact not distracting to other road users and when used correctly, e.g. in a sequential turn indicator, can be beneficial to the overall traffic safety. This study then aims to investigate the potential influence of illuminated logos on road safety. European lawmakers forbid the use of illuminated advertisements on vehicles to minimize the danger of distraction for other road users and thereby negatively influencing traffic safety. As of now, active illumination of the manufacturer’s logo is considered an advertisement.

Transportation safety agencies are working to consider how to best incorporate the potential safety benefits of intelligent vehicle lighting systems such as adaptive driving beam headlights and other systems on vehicles used by the general public. As these deliberations continue, additional data on the impacts of lighting technological developments are important to generate and share. An analytical study was performed to assess how different vehicle lighting configurations including ADB and other technologies can assist drivers in achieving visual acquisition of potential hazards along the road. The investigation also compared drivers varying in age and whose visual performance differs because of optical changes in the visual system. The importance of considering visibility for older drivers is critical because this group is an increasingly large proportion of the overall driving population.

The advent of light-emitting diode (LED) technology for automotive lighting allows flexibility of the spectral distribution of forward headlighting systems, while meeting current requirements for “white” illumination. As vehicle headlights have become whiter (with more short-wavelength light output) over the past several decades, their potential impacts on visual discomfort for oncoming and preceding drivers have been hotly debated. It is known that a greater proportion of short-wavelength energy increases discomfort glare, and that increasing the background light level (e.g., through roadway lighting) will decrease perceptions of discomfort. More recently it has been demonstrated that the visual system exhibits enhanced short-wavelength sensitivity for perceptions of scene brightness.

Workers in construction and transportation sectors are at increased risk for work-related injuries and fatalities by nearby traffic. Barricade-mounted warning lights meeting current specifications do not always provide consistent and adequate visual guidance to drivers and can contribute to glare and reduced safety. Through an implementation of sensors and wireless communications, a novel, intelligent set of warning lights and a tablet-based interface were developed. The lights modulate between 100% and 10% of maximum intensity rather than between 100% and off in order to improve visual guidance and adjust their overall intensity based on ambient conditions. The lights can be synchronized or operated in sequential flash patterns at any frequency between 1 and 4 Hz, and sequential patterns automatically update based on global positioning satellite (GPS) locations displayed in the control interface.

Recent naturalistic driving studies provide a useful means for gathering information about the potential role of lighting in driving safety. The Naturalistic Driving Study carried out through the Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2) includes real-time driving data for crashes, near-crashes and baseline driving events for more than 3000 drivers across the United States. Among the data collected are oncoming illuminance recordings that can be used to estimate glare exposure for the drivers in the study. Data for crash events occurring at night were compared to those for baseline driving under similar conditions and by drivers of similar ages. The resulting light exposure data indicate that oncoming glare is likely to be only a very small factor associated with nighttime crashes, but that the influence of glare may increase for older drivers.

Photometric performance specifications for vehicle headlamp specifications in North America are given in terms of luminous intensity values at various angular locations with the objective of providing sufficient illumination for forward visibility while controlling for glare toward oncoming and preceding vehicle drivers. Abundant evidence suggests that luminous intensity is an appropriate metric for characterizing the degree to which a headlamp can produce disability glare through veiling luminances under a wide range of viewing conditions. Notwithstanding that discomfort glare exhibits a differential spectral sensitivity from the photopic luminous efficiency function used to characterize light, luminous intensity does not always predict discomfort glare. For example, the luminance of the luminous element(s) can be more predictive of discomfort when headlamps are viewed from relative close distances.

Recent technological developments have begun to add a number of new configurations for vehicle forward lighting to the realm of possibility, including high-intensity discharge and light-emitting diode headlamps, and adaptive forward-lighting systems. These systems can offer substantial differences in performance and appearance from conventional filament-based headlamps that have been ubiquitous for many decades. These differences have not gone unnoticed by the U.S. driving public. A review of newspaper articles published during the past several years was conducted in order to assess public perceptions of vehicle headlamps in terms of their ability to support visibility and their impacts on headlamp glare.

We summarize the development and initial deployment of a system that can be mounted along an intersection, curve, drive-in, or parking facility to efficiently gather relevant data about headlamp patterns that might relate to glare or visibility. The system can run autonomously to collect many vehicles per data collection period. The system includes a range finder to capture information when an approaching vehicle is at a specific location, a digital camera to store images of oncoming headlamp position (i.e., mounting height), two arrays of light sensors to measure the vertical headlamp illumination profile (e.g., angular position of headlamp beam cutoff or maximum luminous intensity), and a color-calibrated illuminance meter at the angular location of an oncoming driver's eyes. From the headlamp mounting height data and the vertical cutoff location data, an estimate of the headlamp aim distribution can be made.

Light emitting diode (LED) forward lighting systems are rapidly being developed and will soon be on the road. One aspect of LED systems that will differ significantly from traditional halogen and high intensity discharge (HID) systems is their spectral power distribution (SPD). Of interest is how the new SPDs offered by LEDs will affect the visibility and comfort of drivers. Recent studies have shown that headlamp sources that have more energy in the short wavelength region of the visible spectrum might result in increased discomfort to opposing drivers. Calculations were performed on LED sources to determine their relative potential to cause discomfort. Additionally, a field study was performed to determine the importance of discomfort and disability effects when LED sources are used in forward lighting systems as might be seen in practice. The results of these calculations and the field study are presented.

Glare from oncoming vehicles while driving at night impairs visibility through the mechanism of scattered light in the eyes, which reduces the luminance contrast of objects in the field of view, and through the mechanism of increasing the visual adaptation level, which decreases visibility following glare exposure. Glare can also cause discomfort, which is most commonly assessed experimentally through the use of subjective rating scales. The present paper reports on an investigation of methods to assess glare's impact on driving behavior in a naturalistic setting. Vehicles belonging to drivers were instrumented with a photosensor to estimate the glare illuminance, as well as sensors for monitoring speed, acceleration, braking status, lane position and other attributes. Data from all of these instruments were collected and stored.

New headlamp sources and optical designs are creating new glare scenarios on today's roadways. Recent evidence suggests that the spectral content of vehicle forward lighting may play a role in the glare that it produces. Additionally, there is concern that the decreasing size of some headlamp systems may be contributing to glare. This paper describes a field experiment designed to take a fresh look at headlamp glare, both disability and discomfort, by exploring the role of illuminance, spectrum, and size and determining the relative magnitude of each as it affects oncoming glare. Subjects seated in a test vehicle were exposed to small targets at various angles. Test glare headlamps were positioned 50 m in front of the subject at an angle of 5°, simulating oncoming traffic. The glare intensity at the subject's eye, the spectrum of the glare source (among high intensity discharge, halogen, and blue filtered), and the glare source size were systematically varied.

A research project has been completed to determine if commercially available blue coated lamps provide visual benefit for nighttime driving over standard tungsten halogen lamps. As an esthetic option, tungsten halogen lamps with an absorptive coating have been developed to mimic the appearance of HID lamps. The transmission of these coated lamp results in a continuous output spectrum, like standard tungsten halogen, but with a lower “yellow” content, giving an appearance similar to HID lamps. Aside from esthetic reasons for using blue coated lamps, there is also evidence that the spectral output may provide visual benefits over standard tungsten halogen lamps in nighttime driving. While driving at night, off-axis or peripheral vision is in the mesopic response range and the eye's sensitivity shifts towards shorter wavelengths or “blue” light.

Recent studies have shown that high-intensity discharge (HID) headlamps provide visual benefits to the vehicle operator that may lead to greater nighttime driving safety.[1] This paper is an extension of that work to further examine the role of beam pattern. An experimental field investigation is described that explores the visual performance aspects of HID forward lighting systems meeting North American beam pattern standards. This study further explores and quantifies the overall benefits of HID systems by direct comparison to conventional halogen systems. It examines and compares two systems producing typical Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J1383 beam patterns. Subjects perform a visual tracking task, cognitively similar to driving, while seated in the driver's seat of a test vehicle. Simultaneously, small targets located at various angles in the periphery are activated, with subjects releasing a switch upon detection so that reaction times can be measured.

Immediate response to stop lamps when driving is crucial to roadway safety. Previous research has demonstrated that neon and light emitting diode (LED) stop lamps that have a dynamic sweeping luminance distribution can be just as or more effective than standard stop lamps. Sweeping neon and LED lamps with sweep-up times equal to or less than 100 ms resulted in reaction times equal to or shorter than those obtained with a conventional, non-sweeping incandescent stop lamp. At the same time, an LED stop lamp having the same far-field luminous intensity characteristics as the neon lamp, resulted in shorter reaction times than the neon lamp. The LED stop lamp differed from the neon lamp in two important ways. First, its color was different; the LED lamp had a dominant wavelength of about 630 nm, in comparison to the neon lamp with a dominant wavelength of about 615 nm.

This paper describes a study of visual responses to center high mounted stop lamps (CHMSLs) using a newly developed sweeping neon lamp. This study compares sweeping neon, incandescent, and light-emitting diode (LED) technologies. The incandescent CHMSL was a conventional after-market CHMSL brake light. The sweeping neon CHMSL used a novel controller whereby the luminous signal started at the center of the neon tube and grew in a “sweeping” motion outward toward the ends of the tube at an adjustable rate. The sweeping LED CHMSL had a segmented display simulating the sweeping characteristics of the neon CHMSL. Both the neon and LED CHMSLs had faster onset times than the incandescent CHMSL. Experimental subjects performed a tracking task cognitively similar to driving, and released a flip switch upon detecting the onset of the CHMSLs, which were mounted so as to be seen peripherally.

An experimental field investigation is described that compares off-axis (peripheral) visual performance between high-intensity discharge (HID) forward lighting and halogen systems. The goal of the investigation is to determine if the higher off-axis intensity levels combined with the spectral properties of HID lamps provide any benefits to visual performance over conventional tungsten halogen lamps. In this study three current production European headlamp systems, one HID and two halogen, are compared. These systems are used to illuminate a fixed scene. Subjects perform a visual tracking task, cognitively similar to driving, while simultaneously small targets located at various angles in the periphery are activated. Subjects release a switch upon detection and reaction times and missed signals are measured.