As fall brings rain, fog, and early darkness, driving conditions become more dangerous due to poor visibility.
To enhance road safety, especially for autonomous vehicles, a team from Fraunhofer IOF has developed a new thermal imaging camera that can detect people even in low-visibility situations, day or night.
The camera operates in the infrared wavelength range of 8 to 14 micrometers, which is the same range that humans naturally emit thermal radiation.
This allows the camera to detect pedestrians, cyclists, and other road users even in challenging conditions like darkness, fog, or glare from headlights.
Unlike traditional cameras that rely on visible light, this infrared technology doesn’t need extra lighting, making it highly effective for autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems.
Project manager Martin Hubold explains, “This technology can greatly improve road safety and help prevent accidents. By combining it with existing sensors like LIDAR or RADAR, it ensures better detection under tough conditions.”
The camera has a flat, space-saving design, thanks to its use of small, uncooled bolometer arrays. These arrays capture individual image segments, which are then combined by software to create a larger picture.
The camera currently provides a resolution of 530 x 210 pixels, with a field of view covering 34 x 13 degrees.
Its unique catadioptric optics system, which uses mirrors and prisms, allows the camera to remain compact, with a thickness of just 10 millimeters.
This design makes the camera ideal for autonomous vehicles, especially those at Level 3 and above, where the vehicle can drive itself in certain situations.
It has a wide field of view to detect obstacles like pedestrians and cyclists, even in the dark or when visibility is poor due to weather or headlight glare.
A key advantage of this technology is that it can be manufactured at a large scale using cost-effective methods. By producing the core optical components at the wafer level, the team has managed to significantly lower production costs, making the camera more accessible for widespread use.
Beyond autonomous driving, this infrared camera has many other potential applications. It could be used to monitor heat loss in buildings, help firefighters during emergencies, or assist in industrial process monitoring.
This new infrared camera is a promising step forward in making roads safer, especially as autonomous vehicles become more common.
