Ultra-Fast Traffic Light With Laser Light

AMS Technologies presents traffic light with colour change in the kHz range for the autonomous traffic of the future

Martinsried/Planegg, Germany (PRWEB) - AMS Technologies has developed a new laser technology based on the Raman effect that allows a single laser source to emit light pulses in three different colours. Based on this technology, future traffic lights could change the colours red, yellow and green so quickly that they meet the extreme clock frequencies of future autonomous traffic.

The technical basis of the concept is a process that uses the Raman effect to generate three different wavelengths from the light emitted by a 532 nm laser in the red, yellow and green spectral areas. An optical filter then separates the wavelengths and routes every colour to the optical output of the unit with a switching frequency in the kilohertz range.

This new technology was developed at AMS Technologies' Optical design centre in Daventry, UK. The developers there have now set up a demonstrator to show how the traffic lights of the future will look and function. No longer perceptible to the human eye, the traffic light changes between red, red-yellow and green - the human observer has the impression that all three colours light up simultaneously.

Traffic experts assume, however, that in future autonomous road traffic today’s long phases of traffic lights will be replaced by a demand-driven right-of-way, which, especially at high speeds, has to switch with frequencies between several hundred hertz and about one kilohertz. These extreme requirements can be met with the traffic light now presented by AMS Technologies.

In addition, the laser emits the three traffic light colours with spectrally very pure light, each of which contains only one wavelength. Misinterpretations by (in future autonomous) road users due to washed-out, ambiguous colours are thus a thing of the past.

"Our traffic light will revolutionize traffic control," says AMS board member Jan Meise with conviction, "now vehicle manufacturers and traffic authorities only have to finally give the green light for fully autonomous driving throughout the country.”