Rain-Canceling Headlights Are a Reality

We’re sure you’ve faced this a few times in your motoring experience - driving at night and through pouring rain which is so heavy that the raindrops block and distort the light coming from the headlights of your car, and thus, limiting their working distance considerably.

However, scientists at Carnegie Mellon University may have solved the problem by using complex arrays of sensors which track individual raindrops, thus allowing the headlights to not illuminate the raindrops and allowing for a much clearer view of the road ahead. A projector very briefly illuminates each raindrop in order for the sensors to record it and calculate its position and trajectory and adjust the light coming from the headlights accordingly.

Currently, the system works up to a distance of 4 meters (13 feet) and they also work well in heavy snow. While it’s currently not practical to fit such a system to an actual car, as it’s only 70% efficient (30% of drops are still visible), we’re confident that the technology will progress to a point where rain will disappear from view completely - we are very keen to see how this technology progresses in the future, as we think it’s extremely promising addition to the slew of high-tech safety features now fitted as standard to most cars.

Story via technologyreview.com