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When driving towards the sun there is a tendency to pay less attention to the road ahead than is healthy, as you are usually trying to preserve what vision you have, by avoiding looking at the sun itself.
This is true of many activities where the action is between you and a bright light source,
like catching high balls.
The Sun Spot is a reasonably complicated device, incorporating a helmet equipped with a computer and a set of goggles with an LCD built into each lens.
A photoreactive film on the surface of the lens generates a signal to the controller, whenever you are facing the sun, or any other very bright source of light. The controller takes a few bearings on the orientation of your head to the brightest point in front of you then calculates the spot on the lens through which the light's most likely to pass and strike directly upon the pupils of your eyes.
It then activates the LCDs at those points, blotting the image of the light from your view.
All other areas remain visible, while the spots are inside the focal length of your eyes, so they aren't apparent to the user. We move our heads around enough that it is highly unlikely this will result in accidents, though it may prevent many. We do OK with the two blind spots (retinal nerve focii) we each have, at the moment.
Useful for driving, flyballs, fishing, welding...
When the batteries run low a hand, on a multi-jointed arm, swings over the wearers head from the back, positioning itself to best effect, to keep the sun out of your eyes. It may also wave at people you know,, dab stray crumbs and dribbles of egg from around your mouth, remove stray eyelashes from your eyes, and pick your nose when needed. (See separate idea)
LCD Sun visor
http://www.halfbake...idea/LCD_20Sunvisor
The visor version. There was a full-windshield version but I can't find it now. [waugsqueke, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Halfbakery: " Touchscreen Reflection Dampener"
http://www.halfbake...flection_20Dampener
Circa Oct 01 | An idea trying to sove the same problem but with human assistance. [bristolz, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Could this be a passive alternative?
http://www.optics.r...s/Fischer_OL_96.pdf
Needs some R&D to get the switching down to solar levels. [kbecker, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
[link]
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is it possible that unscrupulous despots could reverse this technology for interrogation purposes? thats a worry, wouldn't you agree? |
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Only if you tell me how often you've been interrogated under bright lights, as opposed to the number of times you've found yourself driving towards the sun. |
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I've been lucky in that. the sun is a stranger to our shores (usually) |
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I already have a wonderful device which is far less likely to malfunction and fry my retina, and doesn't make me look like an extra in Dr. Who... sunglasses. |
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<history is cyclical>...yup [Rods] -
which is the exact idea I posted as
an anno to StarChaser's "Polarized
windshield and headlights" idea,
which he later deleted.</history is
cyclical> |
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I'm getting the feeling that 15,000 halfbaked ideas later, we may be scraping the bottom of the battle, a tad. |
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No longer specific to motor vehicle users, I have broadened the scope to include anyone who ends up having a problem with bright lights. |
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[ScepticAL], then you don't understand what the halfbakery is all about, just yet. |
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<hic>It would sell like hotcakes to the over-65s set. You know, the ones who don't really care what they look like, so long as it's practical and it works. Witness trouser clips for cyclists.</hic> Jeeshush, the bottle'shempty! |
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I like the imaginative use of technology, but rather than a roving LED spot, would prefer a headband with mechanical hand/arm that automatically moved to shield your eyes from the sun, leaving yer actual hands free to do all that other tedious stuff associated with everyday situations. Probably not as effective, I grant you, but more fun to watch. |
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Cool! -[egbert] I would wear a headband with mechanical
arm. |
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OK. For when the batteries run low. |
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Ahem. Couldn't we just use a little "solar" cell? |
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Hmmmm, when I post a link it gets deleted. When [bris] posts the very same link, its ok. Message received, I suppose. |
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It's all in the way you click the ok button, [krelnik]. In the case of that link I did it with a stylus and that was probably the trick. |
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Croissant for the phrase 'reasonably complicated.' |
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Why dont you just wear a pair of sunglasses? or even sunwraps! |
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[MB], you need to set your mind free from the conservative thought patterns restricting you. |
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[RB], //ovolactovegetarians// are regular vegetarians, who eat eggs and milk products. Vegans are purists, who eat *only* vegetables. |
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but wouldn't sunglasses be cheaper. And i'm guessing if this technology is released the first few will be crappy and unfashionable. Why have some big battery powered thingy on your face when you can go and buy a small pair of sunnies and wear those instead..cheaper and cooler. And maybe even cheaper, although some sunnies are quite expensive |
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Sunglasses are sooooo passe! |
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[Mind Boggle], you must really try to free... free... FREE-
hee-hee your mind, so close your eyes... |
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Now can you see the "light"? |
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Yes, they would be cheaper. Yes, they would look better. Yes, they already exist. |
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That's the point! This place is about wacky inventions, that are unlikely to be popular, or useful, or attractive, or lots of other things we have come to expect in this world of minimalist convenience and slick marketing; this world of heavily researched industrial design; of tidy, narrow, cloistered minds and passive, obliging consumers who settle for the same, mass-produced product delivered to any one of hundreds of worldwide markets. |
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It's all well and good to accept a product that works "OK", but there can be so much more!... or less, if you wish. |
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I'm thinking how great these would be driving at night in the rain. |
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You could have a modified version of this thing for welding or other manual jobs involving dangerously intense light, but in small areas of your field of vision. Instead of completely blocking, you could have the helmet just dim* the area. That way, unlike normal goggles, you can still see perhipheral to the bright light. |
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* In fact, if this is LCD, I doubt it would be opaque to something as bright as what I'm thinking of, and so would require no modification. |
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I understand this site is about "wacky inventions" and the like but it still doesn't mean that this idea is good or useful. By the sounds of it the idea may work, but why spend all the time, and money, making something like this when you already have a product that a) already does this and is simpler to make/use and b)...well you don't need b) because a) was so good |
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"If it ain't broken, don't fix it"
i think that quote applies here |
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[MB] But in the instance that I stated, it works *better* than the only other available product : goggles, which obscure everything surrounding this bright light. I wasn't actually thinking of welding, by the way, but it was the most recognisable situation I could think of. |
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You know, sun wraps do the same as goggles...except they look crap and i'd much rather wear a pair of goggles down the street that sun wraps |
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[MB], when the sun is low enough in the horizon to glare
directly into my line of sight while driving, it's often doing
so just above trees or buildings thus creating long
shadows in late afternoon or at dusk. Sunglasses or an all
window shading just compound the problem by reducing
contrast where I am needing it most: intersections, curves
ahead or simply discerning regular traffic just ahead of
me. |
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Blocking a light only at its source is known as "cutoff" or
shielding, in the lighting industry. In general this is
considered more effective and more aesthetic than
overall shading. |
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Anyway, the idea is definitely geekier than anything “old school” such a s sunglasses, which
in my opinion, means it's way more cool. |
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Maybe with one of [Mr_Burns]' Personal Doppler Hat... |
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Ah, yes. I understand they're still back ordered. |
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It's *my* molehill, get your own. |
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Sorry to make a mountain beside your molehill, but one could have glasses that instead brighten the area around the sun to the same degree, and then you just squint real hard… |
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As did the residents of Nagasaki. |
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As goofy as many halfbakers are trying to make this idea
sound, beginning with [UnaBubba], this is actually a very
practical concept (minus the articulated arm waving
hand), sorry to say. |
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New (in the last 6 or 10 years) welding helmets use
instant on LCD shielding. It really revolutionized welding
helmets. The power source is the light from the welding,
using small photocells to the side of the LCD shield. The
degree of shielding is adjustable with a knob, from nearly
clear to totally black. The shield is clear until you start
welding, when the LCD activates so quickly, you don't
even see the full brightness. No longer do welders need
to hold the stick steady while jerking their head to drop
the helmet down, hoping they still have the stick in the
right place. |
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The addition of bright source tracking may be nicely
complicated to develop, but with today's quick computer
chips, I can imagine the dork factor to be pretty minimal
after the first couple of revisions. |
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And for those who doubt the effectiveness of LCD blocking
light, let's remember why it was invented: to keep the
flash from nuclear bombs dropped on Japan from blinding
the pilots, the windshields of the bomber planes were
giant single-segment LCD panels, which blacked out all
light during the flash from the nuclear explosion. |
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The only trouble I see with this concept is how to block
just the bright source, and dim the rest for glare, without
having annoying gaps between the lcd segments, for the
circuitry supplying power to each segment. I have not
been involved with LCD screen development for about 5
years, so maybe now the gaps can be minimized enough to
be OK for this application. |
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Why would there need to be gaps? There are no gaps between different coloured areas on the LCD screen I'm currently looking at. |
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OK I checked up on LCD stuff, and you won't have gaps.
You will have a fine black grid even when the screen is
clear, but you probably won't notice it too much. To see
what I'm talking about, look really closely at a white area
of your LCD display. You might need a magnifyer, but you
should see a fine grid of black lines between the pixels.
These areas will need to be drawn in black to block the
light, creating the black grid. |
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Couldn't we feasibly put much of
this idea into contact lenses? Like
the liquid crystal cells sandwiched
with an infra red filter and a
polarized coating on the outside. |
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Damn! [oxen crossing] is onto me. I figured I could take existing ADF (Auto Darking Filter) technology and hack it, to add bright sensor capability into the equation, just giving a small spot of opacity where it's needed. |
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