Selective darkening of the windshield using high speed video analysis for driving assistance

The paper presents the concept of a new visual based driving assistance system for increasing the safety and comfort in traffic. Using a high speed camera observing the vehicle´s driver, an embedded image analysis module and a selective darkening panel attached to the windshield, the system is able to detect the appropriate area to be darkened in order to shade the driver´s eyes and avoid the dazzling effect. The driver has a better view over the scene, since the rest of the windshield stays in high transparent mode. In this contribution, the main structure of the algorithm is presented. A patent is pending.