Really ecological cars shouldn't have leather seats, wooden dash...

[Xist]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Night vision glasses is an interesting idea. It would need widespread adaptation before you could turn the street lights out though. And muggers would use flash-bang grenades.

Ever go on a night hike or camping and someone shines a flashlight in your face to see who you are? Of course, it is worse if you have actually adapted to the dark, but still not as bad as seeing a bright light while wearing night vision.

That drove me nuts about "The Last Stand," I would have thought the first thing that bad guys wearing night vision would do would be to shoot out the headlights, but it did not seem to bother them.

[freebeard]

Apparently jet pilots have a visor that can darken in one *illionth of a second to protect their eyes from nuclear blasts. Or so they tell them.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

Ever go on a night hike or camping and someone shines a flashlight in your face to see who you are? Of course, it is worse if you have actually adapted to the dark, but still not as bad as seeing a bright light while wearing night vision.

Later generations of night vision are designed to limit the amplification of bright sources of light. FLIR is an even better type of night vision that shouldn't be as susceptible to bright sources of light.

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Why street lights, though?

I've never understood street lights, but we have them everywhere in cities. It actually makes it more difficult to see while driving at night because it glares off of any fog on the windshield, or outside. It's particularly distracting in the snow, or when ice has formed on the windshield. Finally, it reduces night vision by constantly becoming brighter as you approach a light, and dimmer as you retreat from it. It would be safer, and certainly cheaper and less wasteful to not have street lights.

Pedestrians can carry a flashlight, and on most nights, the moon and stars provide enough light to navigate by, assuming a street light hasn't ruined the eyes natural night vision.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I've never understood street lights, but we have them everywhere in cities. It actually makes it more difficult to see while driving at night because it glares off of any fog on the windshield, or outside. It's particularly distracting in the snow, or when ice has formed on the windshield.

I do not deny any of the above, I just have never experienced them!

[jamesqf]

What really bugs me are the miles and miles of empty parking lots, all brightly illuminated even though the businesses are long closed. Or the businesses that leave inside lights on all night, I suppose so burglars won't stumble in the dark and hurt themselves.

On the night vision, it's trivial to do image processing on the output to limit brightness, improve contrast, etc. And if you add the infrared, to detect the body heat of lurking muggers :-)

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Apparently jet pilots have a visor that can darken in one *illionth of a second to protect their eyes from nuclear blasts. Or so they tell them.

A little like an auto darkening welding helmet.
The technology is roughly 15 years old now.
My cheap auto darkening welding helmet darkens in roughly 3.3e-5 seconds.

[freebeard]

I can't find a reference but I think it was Audi that proposed a pixelated dark cloud that would follow the sun around on the windshield, from the driver's perspective.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

What really bugs me are the miles and miles of empty parking lots, all brightly illuminated even though the businesses are long closed. Or the businesses that leave inside lights on all night, I suppose so burglars won't stumble in the dark and hurt themselves.

When I lived in D.C., a lady complained about a new Metro station opening up. She said that it was so well-lit that it would push drug-dealers and muggers into other areas.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Xist

When I lived in D.C., a lady complained about a new Metro station opening up. She said that it was so well-lit that it would push drug-dealers and muggers into other areas.

Keep the drug dealers and muggers at the bus stations, where they belong!

[Big time]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Apparently jet pilots have a visor that can darken in one *illionth of a second to protect their eyes from nuclear blasts. Or so they tell them.

Some kind of Google Glass like display would be great for car safety.
Although they need to make them safe so they won't get incrustated in your forehead if you crash and slam your face on the airbag.