On Friday, November 8, 2013 7:42:03 AM UTC-8, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Friday, November 8, 2013 12:25:02 AM UTC-5, Ralph Barone wrote:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/...ough-the-dark/

Oh good, more lumen wars! :-/


"LEDs are nowhere near as good at getting the light to where you want
it to go."

(But they're the best thing so far for producing light to see by in a
power constrained application like bicycling.)

As usual with articles about increasing use of technology in cars (collision avoidance, lane departure warnings, and now auto-focusing headlights) the prime objective seems to be avoiding problems with other cars.


Because it seems to be the prime issue to be addressed.

There's some mention of pedestrians from time to time. Bicyclists are rarely mentioned, and I wonder if they're even considered.


"... preclude the possibility of someone’s staring into a static light."

See? They've even considered people with a non-movable heads and
moth / deer brains :-)

As an example, the article mentions a "cone of darkness" directed toward other motorists. Will oncoming cyclists get the same auto-courtesy, or will our retinas be fried?


"The lasers will be safely contained, with no chance of bouncing their
fierce rays off unfortunate retinas, even in the event of a collision.
That’s because the BMW lamps turn the intense blue beam into a tightly
concentrated but nonlaser—and therefore eye-friendly—cone of white
light."

How about pedestrians? I'm already assaulted by motorists who think more light from high beams, auxiliary lights, etc. is always better, with no consideration for others on the road.


Courtesy and consideration are just that. They're nice, but don't
rely on them.

And of course, auto-dimming or auto-aiming of headlights won't work if the road rises and falls, nor if the motorist dents his fender badly enough.


Kinda depends on the design and implementation, don'tcha think?

This is all part of the same problem you guys have with the "dazzling"
bike lights: LED's produce *better* light to see by - says so in the
article. Designs will have to consider the ramifications or suffer the
liability. Courtesy and consideration are nice but never rely on the
end-users to do anything. As for the environment and what will be in
it - adapt or get out of the gene pool.