The Israeli manufacturer of thermal imaging technologies, Senso-Optics, has developed a thermal camera-on-chip for Advance Driver Assistance (ADA) systems. The system is designed to reduce road accidents by alerting the driver while providing active breaking and steering assistance. Currently the technology is very expensive, but Senso-Optics claims it offers a cheaper alternative for ADA technology to be able to support day, night and adverse weather conditions.
The system can work in extreme conditions such as heavy fog, smoke and smog. It recognises live figures such as animals and crossing pedestrians, which enables safer driving with more reliable warnings with a lower false alarm rate.
‘One of the major challenges for the development of ADA systems is the price tag in order to make the system available for every driver. Senso-Optics thermal imaging for night vision experience, and our unique set of image processing and enhancement algorithms, put us in excellent position to develop reasonable price-tag products with excellent performance to dominate the future automotive markets,’ said Senso-Optics president and CEO Jacob Dagan.
He also added his future vision: ‘The Senso-Optics future systems would offer a full day or night, all weather video unified sensor. Our R&D team is currently studying the fusion technology to create a fused image compromise of two spectrums from two sensors: far infrared and near infrared sensors into a single image. Smart algorithms would give the future ADA systems the ability to analyse the scene in real time in order to reduce the false alarm rate by even more.’
