It's only taken about a million years, but someone has finally decided that improvements are possible in automobile braking lights. Students from Virginia Tech have developed a new system that can show not just whether you're stopping, but if you're slowing down, when you're about to stop, and how quickly you're pressing the pedal. The concept uses an array of horizontally arranged LED lights -- when you begin to slow, lights in the center glow orange, after a certain threshold side lights turn to red, and if you're slamming on the brake, they'll all flash red. The team, led by mechanical engineering Professor Mehdi Ahmadian, has plans for the system beyond the lab, though they speculate that it will be easier to add them as additional indicators on commercial vehicles at first. If this pans out, someday soon we may all be tailgating a totally psychedelic light show.
posted Mar 26th 2008 10:36PM
Maybe I'm wrong but didn't BMW already have this? They call it "Adaptive Brake Lights". Not sure what options packages you need to get it but it already exists:
"Adaptive Brake Lights
Bumper-to-bumper collisions most often occur when the driver behind you didn't realize how hard you were braking. Our Adaptive Brake Lights help eliminate that scenario by emitting a larger, brighter light the more force you use. It allows those behind you to clearly see whether you"re lightly tapping the brakes to slow down or applying full force for a sudden stop."
http://www.bmwusa.com/Standard/Content/Uniquely/Innovations/Safety.aspx
Yes, I believe that this is standard on all BMW vehicles from 2007 on. However, they are only two stage.
yeah it has already been done, i'm sure the folks at BMW thought past their two stage system already and just havent implemented it yet.
not trying to take anything away from these kids but its not exactly new stuff.
Exactly, BMW and Mercedes have been doing this for a while now.
Just give it a few years for the Japanese and American companies to take the concept.
That's really cool! Too bad most people don't know about it (I didn't) and wouldn't think to see how bright the lights are to see if the person is slamming their breaks or not.
Something like this was tried by the San Francisco Municipal Transit system in the 1980's. If I remember correctly, drivers were so mesmerized by the lights that they rear-ended the busses. The system was changed to a steady light like the 3rd brake light on all cars today.
...Mesmerized?
Wow, I figured I'd have to scroll halfway through 66 comments to see if somebody remembered BMW's system.
You get my award and thanks for the best first post of the week.
Now even Volvo has it as standard,
I wonder why dont other Fords have them even as options
(EBL, ABL ...
This is still on most of the buses I see in the San Diego area. If the driver presses the pedal hard enough the brake lights will blink. It looks the same as when they have the hazards on. I've also seen this on a Rav4 but I think this was some sort of mod added by the owner, I found it obnoxious. This may just lull people into following closer since they have a batter idea of what the asshat in front of them is doing. Could be bad.
Trevor Bayliss demo'd this in the UK many years ago - I remember because I'd thought of it beforehand and thought I'd be a millionaire so I was gutted when I saw it on TV. In hindsight - I was never likely to make any money out of something so blindingly obvious.
One thing though - the weight on the brake pedal isn't the variable I'd choose to light the LED's, the decelleration would vary depending on the manufacturer, car age, tyre condition etc. I'd have it linked to an accelerometer instead to give a real indication of how quickly the car is actually slowing down.
for it to be succesful it needs to become a recognised standard. otherwise its just another amber light randomly placed on the back of a car
This is old news, I even thought I invented this idea ~10 years ago now. Simple LED strip that would illuminate more LEDs the hard the brake pedal was pushed. Started looking into getting patents and what not to find that it was already accepted patents since before 1985.
Yes, I was going to say the same thing. Recently saw this when checking out the BMW web-site.
I can also remember years back someone come out with a module that would make your (secondary) brakelights or rear-foglights blink during heavy breaking. Especially useful during fog. But the European laws wouldn't allow it.
On another note, I see this being used on schoolbuses. Orange brake lights when they use their air-brake, red on full brakes.
The question is not 'who came up with it first?', but 'which one can play Doom?'
Shows you what happens when someone takes the initiative. For my freshman engineering design class there are at least five projects about this, most involving accelerometers. The best idea I saw involved two sets of lights, shaped like ice cream cones with the largest part pointing towards the outside of the car. The harder you brake, the brighter the lights got and the further apart they are. Reason why they would be further apart is when you're coming up on two lights, they move towards opposite edges of your vision and spread apart and that spreading apart seems to be built into your reflexes. In any case, I'm glad someone is doing this finally.
Sorry. Perhaps I'm too cynical but...
This is just going to confuse people. No offense but most Americans (and most humans) are idiots. If they see more than one color on the back of a car they will become confused, they will not understand the concept and they will all, in unison, go momentarily insane skidding and swerving and accelerating into one another creating one gigantic pileup on every roadway in America simultaneously. If you gave them 10 years to figure it out, they would still not understand the concept and think that, as with traffic lights, yellow means go faster. All commerce will come to a screeching halt. This invention will harken the end of civilization as we know it.
It all works on reflexes really. The brighter the lights and the faster they split apart the bigger response it triggers. This isn't really meant to be processed by your conscious mind, in a situation where this system would take effect everything would be happening too quickly. But by making it seem like the car is coming up on you faster than it is you'll be ready to hit the brakes or swerve sooner.
I kid you not... my neighbor went to do her driver test and failed because she thought the yellow blinking traffic light was trying some kind of driving test trick to see if she would stop. She hit the brakes every time the light would be on.
Mercedes and BMW both have adaptive brake light systems.
finally.
i had the amazing idea of a little LED sign on the front and back bumper with either a keyboard or preset phrases, but then realized that it would just be used to tell people exactly what you think of their driving.
Something similar to your idea has existed for years now. This is one of them.
http://www.streettags.com/Vehicle_window_LED_Sign_p/ns-100-er.htm
yeah, but that's not in the BUMPER.
therefore, my idea is original.
i had the same thing with those ruler/hole punch things. i designed the EXACT SAME THING in my head before having ever seen one.
Well then Carl, perhaps you should execute on some of your brilliant ideas, lest the world be robbed of your genius until other poser comes along and re-invents it.
Ideas are easy. Execution is difficult. It appears you lack the latter.
well, i thought of the ruler in 6th grade, and the sign in 8th grade.
(now in tenth grade)
I don't want to sound like I'm downrating this product but the problem is, that even if you have brake lights showing the braking force in color increments, it still takes a human being TOO LONG to recognize a signal and then apply brakes.
The problem is that too many people follow too closely, speed and of course, AREN'T PAYING ENOUGH ATTENTION due to cellphones, conversations with riders,etc.
Do you really think that people have the reflexes neccessary to interpret brake light signals and decide to apply half or full brakes in 60 mph traffic?
I don't.
Also, most people have no concept of gradual and proper brake control, especially in their 3 ton fatass SUVs. They just slam the brake all the time.
The best example is in stop and go traffic. If a car moves up a few inches in front of them... they instantly freak out, slam the gas for those few inches, then slam the brake again. Uhh, did that make you feel better? Because you're no closer to your destination. Congratulations, idiot!
sorry I have bitter memories of the highway
And people wonder why gas is now nearly $4 a gallon.
Thank goodness I'm getting an electric car.
VTech for the win!
VTEC for the win!
Thats pretty cool, now just make one that flashes: stop tailgating me you fucking asshat!
So it's basically Kitt's scanner lights behind the car.
We do this in high school, we wire the system and everything we just dont install it in a car. The idea isnt new but needs to be used.
What I find bad design in brake lights, is combined turn signal, brake and rear night lights in the same light encasing, all in red of course to make it less obvious.
I also vaguely remember Mercedes wanting to use flashing brake lights, which should attract more attention, and in so decrease response time.
Absolutely, it's just bad design. If one of the brake lights burns out, someone intermittently stepping on their brake (as happens a lot in slow or slowing down traffic) looks like they're signaling to turn. Happens way more often than one might think, and annoys me to no end.
What I dislike about these is when they are turning, but they are tapping the break so I can't tell if they are turning left or right. Lane changes especially.
I seem to remember an experimental car back in the 70's that had tri-color tail lights. Green if you were accelerating or cruising, yellow if you were decelerating and red if you applied the brakes.
Can't remember who made it though.
One Word Two syllable's ..... goooo gulllll
two points from an ex-automotive engineer....20 plus years ago, they "invented" a brake light to signal how fast your stopping by it's flash-rate. It flashed faster the hard you were braking. Very intuitive, don't you think? Faster flashing gets your attention quicker to react quicker. Second, they put CHIMSEL (center high mounted brake lights) because a small study on federal vehicles showed it decreased rear-end collisions. A subsequent university study showed that people got "immune" to the CHIMSELs and had no long term effect. & we still pay for one on each new car. Final point, the lighting institute (funded by GE) showed increase productivity with increasing lumens. That was the common wisdom until a smart-alecky prof took out every 3rd light bulb and got the same increase in productivity. change works.
Woohoo Va Tech!! I live ten minutes away, its cool to see something like this on engadget! w00t
So you live in Blacksburg, or Christiansburg.
Either way, I'm sorry.
C-Burg represent hahaha
I feel safe!!
Good job and finally!!!
"Whoa, man, check out those pretty colors ... they're like pscyhe (BAM!)"
testtt
i thought of this idea years ago
What about people who ride their brakes? At least they won't burn out as quick...
You know what the life of an LED is? Burning out isn't going to be a problem. Your car will likely fall apart before they fail.
I don't know about where you guys and girls live, but orange is the colour for turn indicators. To have it used for any other reason is counter productive and potentially dangerous. This idea ranks up there with clear indicator lenses that flash "kinda maybe on a good day if we are lucky" orange but more than often a orange tinted white light, that is if you can even see them in the daylight. Of course those flashing 'white" which is the colour of headlights/reverse lights, (read:oncoming indication), rank nicely on the "this concept has no brains" listy-o-dumbcarthings.
welcome to 2004 - ABLAS - its equipped on BMW 3 series vehicles in 2004!
representing 330ci's! woot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! love my car
but yes i think its a great idea to incorporate some yellow into the braking mix.
Why do they keep putting "smart" on everything, even if the product isn't really "thinking"?
I think we need more "smart" buyers and less "smart" advertising.
Probably because they thought "Digital autoranging decelerometer indicator System" to be to verbose.
I can't stand when cars have red turn-signal indicators. That lovely amber color is much easier to see and makes it clear that the person is turning and I don't need to look twice to see if it's a brake light or not.
This idea is a variation on the technology that BMW already has in its vehicles, but is a good idea nonetheless. As a fellow ME student, I say kudos to VTech.
I disagree, I really don't like the yellow/amber lights and would prefer that they all were red. Especially if you get someone who turns their "Emergency flashers" during rain seeing that amber light flashing actually makes me nauseous.
REALLY? So a yellow light makes you nauseous but not a red one? Thats about a 100 nm difference in wavelength. Having one color and only two brightness levels for 3 indicators makes no sense.
True, but I prefer at least a dedicated red turn signal compared to those god-awful signals that are completely integrated - that is, only ONE light for both brake and signal. It can get confusing for a second when both braking and signaling. Annoying.
Sweet, heres a cool idea:
When your pressing the gas your lights are green, when your gliding they are yellow, and when your breaking they are red.
The only problem here is that the general public might see all the little green lights on back of cars and confuse them with the traffic signal and go when the light is really red.
I actually think about this sometimes when I drive only instead of making them multi-colors, i think they should just make them red and make the light fade. the harder you slam on your brakes, the brighter they fade. And make them all a standard brightness.
the brighter they fade? the louder it gets quiet?
it works, a fade can be in or out.
damn, my bad, i see how that works
Brightness is hard to gauge and not all brakelights are of equal size/brightness/capabilities, and making it wider/narrower is also confusing when gauging distance in the dark I think.
I'd say make 2 separate lights and light up the extra ones when braking hard and keep it at that.
Wow... I thought about doing this as a DIY project on my car some years ago, but stopped short when I thought about all the D.O.T. rules I might brake. Guess it's not a problem.
(pun intended)
now all they need to do is make a u-turn turn signal
YES!
A middle finger signal would be more convenient, so you won't have to take your arm out of the window to flip off the annoying driver behind you.
What about the annoying driver in front of you that should be allowing you to pass?
They're really "shooting" for a new level of safe driving.
Very funny... Oh wait you're just an ASSHOLE
Now if only they would invent "smart" turn signals for asshats who feel too good to alert drivers around them of their intentions.
Uhh we've been able to get lights similar to this in NZ for quite a while now. The concept definitely isn't new.
We have? Crikey!
Where from?
http://www.flashbrake.co.nz/index.htm
There are others out there too I think.
Virginia universities rock my world!
Wouldn't the orange brake light confuse people into thinking that you're making a turn instead of just slowing down? Especially at night when the first thing you'd notice are the lights and not the car.
Great idea. I've often wondered about that as well - an indicator that can show what the driver is really doing. Now if we could get people to signal BEFORE they make a turn rather than AS they make a turn.
I've seen this on many public transit buses. They will turn red for breaking, and flash amber lights when the buss is making a faster stop.
I was told about 8 years ago about this idea...using blue lights for a "hard stop" which would frighten people following too close to stop on time.
I thought this was already being made and refused by car companies...because, well, it's a great idea.
And fewer crashes means fewer purchased cars...
The idea is good but when you're driving there are way too many things to process and how filled a bar is adds unnecessary information to have to process. Brightness is really the way to go. It also allows people to ability to evaluate how they choose to interpret the lights which could lead to some underestimation and then accidents. This would need tons of testing including huge samples especially in older people who already hate how much unnecessary information is on a dashboard.
People are too dumb for these to work. Brake lights simply need to convey the message--with no uncertainty--"Slow Down" so that to onus is on the driver to be aware of the rate of deceleration.
I read about a system like this for motorcycles back in the 80's as well. it had a series of flashing LED's and the harder you were braking the faster the lights would flash. So if you were stopping fast the lights would get a lot of attention.
This is an awful idea. What if the guy ahead of you is about to get into a horrible accident but misapplies his brakes ( due to stupidity, being drunk, or being scared poopless )? You've all heard about the morons who follow gps navigation equipment off cliffs, now they can follow the people ahead of them into accidents. With solid state breaks, you see when the person ahead of you is braking, and have to use your wits to figure out if you need to use your own brakes, and how much pressure to apply. People need to be more involved in dangerous activities, the more removed they are, the less attention they will pay.
mustangs have had kits to do this for years (i know since the end of the 5.0, possibly before) - the three different bars of the brake lights would light up sequentially based on pedal force. this is a bit more elaborate of an execution, but the concept of "improved" brake lights has (as many above have pointed out) been around a while.
CEASE AND FUCKING DESIST I have a patent application pending on this idea. So fuck right off with the research as i have already done it. holy fuck, people stealing my fucking ideas. yes i'm pissed off.
WOW mr. Fuckity fuck fuck.
For christs sake it's a university, not a business. You already have a patent pending on the idea, so you pretty much have it. And judging by the comments on here, your idea wont really sell...
Not exactly the comment from a sane rational inverter intelligent type aye? Did you think this is a forum from VT?
Then several posts down from this you state, calmly, that your idea is different utilizing the lights that come with the vehicle.
Have you Not been taking your meds again?
I was inspired by the Nissan Skyline taillights, which are awesome. While these would not be totally like the lights, they are similar.
Whenever the brake is applied, the center of the light is on (red) , just like regular, so any aforementioned "stoopud" person would be able to read the lights fine. Then a ring of red LEDs would encircle the center, and would light in a circle according to braking pressure, from the top, counter-clockwise on the right and clockwise on the left. It would look like the Firefox loading page thingy in the top right corner.
So the center light on and zero or one dot is someone riding the brakes, and all lights on is "slam on the brakes"
Even if this isn't the most practical, it still looks cool.
I think we'll really have made some improvement in automotive technology when I can use my car's force dome to push slow moving vehicles out of the way. Preferably with some method of divining my attitude for the driver who is going slow. If I they really bug me it will push them to my left - into oncoming traffic (e.g. concentrating on dialing their cell phone or applying makup) . If I think they are just ignorant of the fact driving slow in the left lane is wrong (e.g. 80 years old), it will push them into the slow lane where they belong.
That's a good point. I really hope that all of the trap doors the city is hiding beneath the streets will take care of reckless and dangerous motorists. You know what I am talking about, those square cutouts of pavement at stoplights. The reduction in police force will save taxpayers money to pay for gas. I am also sure that the communication between cars will allow automated driving, resulting in Americans getting the extra 42 minutes of sleep required for a productive day, and boosting performance by 13.415471254125745136854365435484887878787876667%. The economy will have a chance of recovery with all of those people thinking straight, and using money wisely. In fact, with the proliferation of automated driving, the brakelight may even become obsolete, only creating light pollution and wasting electricity that could be used to charge 1 out of the 17 batteries you need charged NOW. In that case, all of this research is useless. It was damn cool, though.
My town added lights that activated upon slowing (deceleration) to our city buses decades ago. Running another circuit or two to the same light bank from the brake pedal isn't exactly cutting edge, here.
No it's not and you petty much got ho I have it done. close very close. I hope thi mkes me rich. my iea is alot simpler tan theirs and uses the standard lights that are already in your car. no retrofittin needed.
Reading through the comments, I see I'm not the only one who thought about this!
If you thought about it too, let us know: http://armchairinventors.com/forum/index.php?topic=13.msg15#msg15
These are exactly the types of "well, I'm not going to do it, but somebody should" ideas I trying to collect, for entertainment; silly and ridiculous ideas too!
tech
From what I know, a few months old BMW 335i Cabrio has that...
I'm not familiar with the 1980s trial in San Francisco but I've see brake lights that flash rapidly for a fraction of a second when they're first pressed on motorcycles and emergency vehicles for a few years now.
I think it has just been a matter of figuring out the best way to implement it.
This is so lame! i talked about this maybe 12 years ago when i was little. and now some Vtech Students are comming up with the idea. It's more like commen sence than an invention. The same common sence that if Cho comes in your class room with a gun , not to hide under the desk!!
and some blooke invented this ages ago too. Virginia tech - is that what here in the uk we would refer to as a poly?
http://www.vbilighting.co.uk/faqs.html
You can see that by the intensity of the light at the moment. So it's a bit useless imo.
It would seem to me that, by instinct, the eye seeing two points of light moving away from each other would give the appearance of the physical object moving away from you, thus negating the need to slow down their vehicle. I would think that seeing the lights come together would 1) convey the point that the object in front of you is getting closer and 2) give a psychological edge as the two points of light will be nearing collision.
Hmm, this was supposed to be in reply to Avatar's message, but it ended up here.