Rain-Concealing Projectors

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed innovative anti-glare headlights that will make driving in the rain and snow incredibly easier. The prototype system was created to actually "dis-illuminate" the raindrops and snow, making them virtually invisible, so that the driver can see the road more clearly.

How do these anti-glare headlights work? According to Technology Review, a special digital projector illuminates the raindrops for several milliseconds, while at the same time a camera snaps each raindrop's location. Then, software will predict where each drop will fall on the windshield or in front of the driver, and the headlights' beam that would typically illuminate the drop would be turned off. In this way, all of the light that would have hit the raindrop (usually the drops three to four meters in front of the car are most distracting), causing glare, would not exist -- only the light that travels in between each drop.

The innovation will be tremendously useful for drivers, but head researcher Srinivasa Narasimhan believes more experiments must be done to account for the moving vehicle before the anti-glare headlights can be made available on the market.