Night-time visibility as a function of headlamp beam pattern and pavement reflection properties

The visibility level (VL) approach is often applied to assess the performance of vehicle lighting systems. After describing the details of the VL computational model, we review how it is ordinarily implemented for assessing night-time visibility in driving conditions. Then we present an evolution of the VL approach which consists in evaluating visible edges instead of visible objects, thereby solving the problem of non-uniform luminance at the considered target and at its background. And finally, we present a night-time visibility meter tool for road operators to characterize the contribution of the pavement to the visibility under headlight illumination, with a potential application in AFS.