Development of a headlight glare simulator for a driving simulator

We describe the design and construction of a headlight glare simulator to be used with a driving simulator. The system combines a modified programmable off-the-shelf LED display board and a beamsplitter so that the LED lights, representing the headlights of oncoming cars, are superimposed over the driving simulator headlight images. Ideal spatial arrangement of optical components to avoid misalignments of the superimposed images is hard to achieve in practice, and variations inevitably introduce some parallax. Furthermore, driver’s viewing position varies with driver height and seating position preferences, exacerbating misalignment. We reduce the parallax errors using an intuitive calibration procedure (a simple drag-and-drop alignment of nine LED positions with calibration dots on the screen). To simulate the dynamics of headlight brightness changes when two vehicles are approaching, LED intensity control algorithms based on both headlight and LED beam shapes were developed. The simulation errors were estimated and compared favorably with real-world headlight brightness variability.

► A glare simulator uses high intensity LEDs to induce real glare in driver’s eyes.
► A beamsplitter superimposes the LED light over the driving simulator’s screen.
► Spatio-temporal changes of LED illumination are synchronized to the simulated scene.
► Brightness changes simulate real-world brightness change.
► The resulting simulation is visually plausible and realistic.