Night Vision monitors the road surface and the immediate surrounding area, extending by three-to-five times the range of conventional low-beam headlights. At the core of the system is a camera integrated in the grille. It creates an infrared thermal image that is projected by a head-up display onto the lower section of the windshield. This enables people, animals, deserted vehicles and other obstacles hidden in the dark to be detected significantly sooner.
The camera uses refractive optics and detectors to gather the heat emitted by humans, animals and objects on and around the road. The higher temperature of humans, animals and moving vehicles means they contrast sharply with their surroundings. A computer converts their thermal signals into images within milliseconds. In order to ensure a particularly precise infrared image, a thermocouple maintains the electronic component at a constant (room) temperature. This means temperature differences of 0.3 degrees centigrade can be detected. In similar fashion to the shutter of a film camera, a disc rotating at 1800 rpm combined with specially designed electronics creates a video image composed of 30 frames per second, which is projected on the head-up display. While cooler surfaces appear dark in the black and white display, objects emitting higher levels of thermal energy are lit up.
Night Vision has been available on the American market in the DeVille executive sedan since 1999. This made Cadillac the world's first car manufacturer to develop a safety system based on innovative nocturnal vision technology for a production car. The high-tech feature will also be employed in other GM models.
Cadillac has already won numerous awards for Night Vision: the 1998 "Best of What's New" award (Popular Science), the 1999 "DigiGlobe" multimedia price (Deutsche Telekom and Focus magazine) and the 2000 "World Automotive Award" (NN).
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