I am new to this forum, and wanted to take a second to introduce myself, and ask for advice on a project I am working on.
I am a computer science student and I have been working on a carputer project for a few years now. I frequent mp3car.com as 'alti' (in case anyone here is also a member there) but have started on an idea that I am having trouble finding information on. I want to install a nightvision system in my car that will display output booth on my 10.4” screen molded in my dash, and also on a HUD (heads up display) that I would like to project onto the windshield of my car. I have obtained a nitemax night vision camera and have already figured out how to break it into a camera section and a control section, the camera witch consists of the CCD board and the lens will be mounted in a small project box under my cars mirror. The power board, lcd controller and lcd for the HUD will be in another project box that I will recess into my dashboard. There is a composite out on the lcd controller which I will run to a usb video capture device for the computer and the original lcd that the camera had will be the lcd I play to project through for the HUD.
Here is a rough photocrop I did to show what I mean:
I searched around your forums and did not find anything similar, but I cannot think of a better place to ask for advice for the HUD then here since there are so many people with long term projector experience. Here is couple of rough diagrams of the box that will be embedded in the dashboard the dashboard of my car.
Can anybody point me in the right direction for what components would work best for my application? I have included an image of what I am looking to accomplish to help.
For now I am going to use the stock backlighting on the lcd, I only plan to use the system at night and I believe it should provide adequate light. Since there is a way to mirror the image from the lcd controller, I have also decided to forgo a mirror and just mount the LCD parallel to the windshield. I am also looking for input on films, tints, polymers or similar materials anyone here might have had experience projecting an image on. I wish to use something on the windshield to improve the image, prevent ghosting and prevent the image from being visible from the front of the windshield outside the car, but with minimal loss in opacity of the windshield.
If any one is interested here is a picture of the dissected hardware I will be using…
Thanks in advance!
- Brian
I am a computer science student and I have been working on a carputer project for a few years now. I frequent mp3car.com as 'alti' (in case anyone here is also a member there) but have started on an idea that I am having trouble finding information on. I want to install a nightvision system in my car that will display output booth on my 10.4” screen molded in my dash, and also on a HUD (heads up display) that I would like to project onto the windshield of my car. I have obtained a nitemax night vision camera and have already figured out how to break it into a camera section and a control section, the camera witch consists of the CCD board and the lens will be mounted in a small project box under my cars mirror. The power board, lcd controller and lcd for the HUD will be in another project box that I will recess into my dashboard. There is a composite out on the lcd controller which I will run to a usb video capture device for the computer and the original lcd that the camera had will be the lcd I play to project through for the HUD.
Here is a rough photocrop I did to show what I mean:
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I searched around your forums and did not find anything similar, but I cannot think of a better place to ask for advice for the HUD then here since there are so many people with long term projector experience. Here is couple of rough diagrams of the box that will be embedded in the dashboard the dashboard of my car.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Can anybody point me in the right direction for what components would work best for my application? I have included an image of what I am looking to accomplish to help.
For now I am going to use the stock backlighting on the lcd, I only plan to use the system at night and I believe it should provide adequate light. Since there is a way to mirror the image from the lcd controller, I have also decided to forgo a mirror and just mount the LCD parallel to the windshield. I am also looking for input on films, tints, polymers or similar materials anyone here might have had experience projecting an image on. I wish to use something on the windshield to improve the image, prevent ghosting and prevent the image from being visible from the front of the windshield outside the car, but with minimal loss in opacity of the windshield.
If any one is interested here is a picture of the dissected hardware I will be using…
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Thanks in advance!
- Brian
I did that back in the mid 80's with a newvicon vidicon tube (great short IR response) in a CCTV camera in a full sized Chevy van. This was before CCD's were available. Ordinary car headlights provided the road illumination through both red and green cinemoid gel filters (use in stage lighting) stacked until no visible light could be seen coming from the headlight. A 9" B&W TV monitor sat on the van dashboard close to the middle of the dash with screen pointed towards the driver's side and a 45 degree angled plexiglass between the driver and windshield acted as a partial mirror in which the TV screen could be seen superimposed on the direct view of the road.
It worked well but was a bit weird getting used to, especially the difference between the camera view and the direct view through the windshield. If I did this again I would want a off axis filter on the monitor screen and would use a flat LCD mmonitor facing upwards from the dashboard to reflect directly off the windshield towards the driver's eyes if possible.
You don't want to project an image onto the windshield. You want to reflect an image of the TV monitor in the windshield, or angle plate as I did, exactly as you would look at a TV screen reflection in a mirror. That is not "projection".
Get caught using that on public roads at night without visible lights and expect to get clobbered by another driver or go to jail.
I see such an idea as a possible way to navigate better through fog. You could experiment with the wavelength of the illumination source and also the spectral width (monochromaticity) to penetrate the water vapour droplets better than wideband white light.
Welcome to these forums!
It worked well but was a bit weird getting used to, especially the difference between the camera view and the direct view through the windshield. If I did this again I would want a off axis filter on the monitor screen and would use a flat LCD mmonitor facing upwards from the dashboard to reflect directly off the windshield towards the driver's eyes if possible.
You don't want to project an image onto the windshield. You want to reflect an image of the TV monitor in the windshield, or angle plate as I did, exactly as you would look at a TV screen reflection in a mirror. That is not "projection".
Get caught using that on public roads at night without visible lights and expect to get clobbered by another driver or go to jail.
I see such an idea as a possible way to navigate better through fog. You could experiment with the wavelength of the illumination source and also the spectral width (monochromaticity) to penetrate the water vapour droplets better than wideband white light.
Welcome to these forums!
Thanks for the reply and the warm welcome, rcavictim 🙂. Don’t worry I have no intention of driving using this system without headlights on any public roadway, it is only meant to be used to improve my night visibility. The IR light given off by the headlights of the car is more then enough for the camera that I am using to work off of, the presence of the visable light should not have much or any negitive effect. I am going to install two clusters of IR LEDs in my fog light holes on the front of my car for situations when additional IR light would be helpful. This part I have to be careful with however as they do emit a faint red visible light when on, which is illegal to have on the front of my car. The other reason I am working on this project is for software design, I am going to start working on object recognition algorithms in the hopes of designing a system that might help identify road hazards and warn the driver.
I also see what you are saying that this is more of a reflection then a projection. I think the key is going to be just trial and error playing with the angles to get it right. And also finding the right tint/film/substance to use of the windshield to display the reflection as well as possible without changing the opacity of the windshield.
-Brian
I also see what you are saying that this is more of a reflection then a projection. I think the key is going to be just trial and error playing with the angles to get it right. And also finding the right tint/film/substance to use of the windshield to display the reflection as well as possible without changing the opacity of the windshield.
-Brian
Hi, very interesting project you want to do.
I have seen homemade HUD's where they use a plastic cd cover as the reflective material just stuck on the windhield, but it was just used as a tacho and speed reading, not for anything you're planning on using, but maybe that 'may' help.
Also you may probably know this but the IR LED's won't give too much coverage as in distance wise so im not sure how much use they'd be. I think they're maximum range was about 5 metres from memory.
I have seen a very similar IR system retrofitted to a Jaguar on a local TV show but to get the IR beam a red filter was put over two of the 4 headlights.
I have seen homemade HUD's where they use a plastic cd cover as the reflective material just stuck on the windhield, but it was just used as a tacho and speed reading, not for anything you're planning on using, but maybe that 'may' help.
Also you may probably know this but the IR LED's won't give too much coverage as in distance wise so im not sure how much use they'd be. I think they're maximum range was about 5 metres from memory.
I have seen a very similar IR system retrofitted to a Jaguar on a local TV show but to get the IR beam a red filter was put over two of the 4 headlights.
Oklushun said:
I did see a video of a guy in england that used a cd case for his gps from his carpc, seemed to work pretty well, but i would like to get something that looks alittle bit cleaner if i can.
The LEDs that I am going to use will only be to help augment the IR light from the headlights of my car for foggy conditions and such, I dont intend to ever be driving just with them on. Alot of the project will be trial and error for me, to see what works, I have not been able to find any one right way to do this, I have not found very much on the topic at all.
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