Ford Developing Headlights That Detect People & Animals In The Dark

American carmaker Ford is developing advanced headlights that will detect people, animals and even adapt to tricky situations in the dark.

The camera based advanced headlight system can widen the beam at junctions and roundabouts to give the driver better visibility and illumination. The lighting system can also draw the attention of the driver to focus on pedestrians, animals or even cyclists.

Ford's Advanced Front Lighting System is built up on the Adaptive Front Lighting System and Traffic Sign Recognition system which already exists with a few Ford models.

The lighting system also uses GPS information to better illuminate bends and dips on the route. When GPS information is unavailable, forward-facing video camera mounted in the rear-view mirror base take charge to detect lane markings and predict the road.

Ken Washington, the Vice President for Ford Research and Advanced Engineering said, Many people who drive at night have had to quickly react to someone or something suddenly appearing in the road - as if from nowhere."

"Ford's Camera-Based Advanced Front Lighting System and Spot Lighting help ensure the driver is quickly alerted to people or animals that could present a danger."

Further more, the camera stores the information in the navigation system. When the driver uses the same road again, the headlights adapt to the course of the road automatically.