Re:The latest chapter for the self-driving car: mastering ci...
by thrownaway2424 on Monday April 28, 2014 @04:04PM
(#7662574)
Agreed about the eye. They are great for looking at whatever you point them at, which for drivers in my area is usually their iPhone. I'd be surprised if humans were terribly good at perceiving a meter-high object that appeared in their lane at a distance of 50m, because their occuli are occupied perceiving other things. I'm sure a self-driving car that had an unblinking human eye would be a fantastic instrument.
Anyway the LIDAR is not the only instrument you can put in an autonomous vehicle, right? You can have optical cameras, stereo cameras, infrared, whatever.
The human eye is an amazing instrument. Contrast range of 24 stops vs. 16 in a top of the line camera. (Think 24 bit ADC vs. 16 bit). Follow that up with 24 bit color depth and the ability for our eyes to automatically adjust what portion of the spectrum we're focusing on, and you've got a spectacular sensor.