Robust dazzling detection in a novel visual based dazzling avoidance system

This article presents a novel method of detecting the dazzling effect in a new vision based driving assistance system (ShadeVision) which aims to avoid the dazzling effect caused by strong external light sources. Different from existing systems which only detect the dazzling effect at night, our proposed system can also identify the dazzling effect during the day, particularly in dawn and dusk. To that end, the eye region of the driver and other regions surrounding the eyes, the interior of the vehicle, as well as the background light outside the window are all captured by a high speed camera with 1280×500 resolution and a frame rate of 1000 Hz mounted in the vehicle. Afterwards all these data are synthesized and analyzed to determine the dazzling effect. Moreover, the details of dazzling detection method for nighttime and daytime driving are presented explicitly. The final tests verify the effectiveness of our proposed approaches.