Color occupies an increasingly important place in our everyday life, but also in the field of automotive. Today, color is used on the instrument panels of most cars, either in the dashboard, in head up display (HUD), or liquid crystal displays, all of which use fairly complex, differently colored symbologies.

More and more visual information has to be displayed in a car. For safety reasons, and in order to avoid tiredness this information must be seen as clearly as possible by the driver, in any light conditions. Light intensity, homogeneity and color variation must be handled and can now be simulated by SPEOS simulation software from OPTIS. This new tool is based on photometric simulation, and a new physics-based approach in light propagation. The simulator includes real light emission with real spectrum, exact instrument geometry and 3D environment inside and outside the car, plus a unique LCD simulation model. Due to its physics-based approach to light, a real life measured library of materials is used to calculate the level of reflection of light anywhere in the car.

Over the last ten years, OPTIS has developed efficient photometry simulation algorithms. Thanks to a physics based approach simulation, the important information necessary to compute eye-vision simulation, is fully integrated in the obtained results. The important fact is that it allows the user to handle and simulate accurately source emission, light propagation, light interaction with surfaces and light detection, with a spectral management of data. The level of precision obtained with SPEOS software is better than 10 % and, as many other simulation software, depends a lot on the precision of the input data themselves. Another major benefit is the time needed to simulated the system: in most case between 10 and 50 time faster than other simulation software

The software is operational connected to CAD/CAM software and will be available inside CATIA V5. It is possible to import the geometry of any lighting system from any CAD software. Propagation is based on optical laws and results are displayed in view to make post-processing analysis. It is operational at any wavelength and it is possible to enter the data using a standard RGB table.

The material segment of SPEOS comes with a catalog of standard optical material (SCHOTT, HOYA, CORNING,..), plastic optics (Bayer, Röhm, …) and rubber coatings for dashboards. It is possible to add user defined Optical material and plastic material including colored and diffusing material.

With SPEOS any kind of light source can be modeled by entering geometry and defining its emission properties: spectrum and type of emission. So it is easy to model tungstenhalogen incandescence lamps, short arc discharge lamps, using zenon or metal halegonide technology. A laser system may be defined too. The level of light inside the cars may have an important dynamic. It depends especially on the ambient light conditions. This light can come from the sky, from the sun, and from the internal lighting of the cockpit itself. We have to pay attention to the exact physical modeling of this light and the effects on the instruments. These sources are part of the input data defining the scene.

OPTIS have developed an innovative solution: the SPEOS-VLCL combination which enables the user to simultaneously compute the light propagation in all the components and the physical behavior of the liquid crystal display. This software combination computes the luminance levels, color coordinates, illuminance and intensity diagram for any LCD based system in any lighting configuration. SPEOS is a ray tracing based lighting software for computing backlighting and ambient lighting and provides the tools needed to analyze simulation results.

SNAPSHOT

SPEOS is widely used in automotive industry to:

• Analyze and optimize the light in headlamps, tail lamps, and signal lamps
• Simulate human vision to see the product in its lit appearance, as it would be seen in given weather conditions, day and night
• Optimize the visibility of dashboards displays, GPS screens, head-up displays,
  switches & control panels
• Define and master the optics of the system, detect visibility problems before the prototype phase
• Test visibility through your windshield design in static and dynamic modes (visualize what the driver would see in the mirrors)
• Pick a paint color and material from the built-in library and render the final appearance of the car
• Optimize choice of materials and light sources to improve perceived quality...

EDS Technologies has a strategic partnership with OPTIS to cater to the Visual Simulation requirements of Indian Auto OEM’s and Auto Ancillaries. For more details about this product, mail to marketing@edstechnologies.com