Connected to the brake pedal is a potentiometer which varies the brake light’s light output. The pot is connected to a simple PWM* circuit that turns the bulb on and off hundreds of time a second. When the pedal is pressed the bulb lights dimly (dim proportionally to daylight, sensed by a Cds cell) when the pedal is pressed harder, the light gets brighter. If the pedal is pressed very hard or floored, strobe lights within the brake light are triggered. Red strobe lights of course.
*Pulse Width/Wave Modulation-- evilpenguin, Aug 21 2007 same thing, but not Proportional_20Signal_20LightsThis is what I found that resembled mine, but not really [evilpenguin, Aug 21 2007] [bristolz] artwork http://bz.pair.com/fun/indicators.html [Worldgineer, Aug 21 2007] Being considered... http://www.physorg.com/news93882626.html...by BMW, among others [neutrinos_shadow, Aug 21 2007] Hmm sounds neat enough, I'd just be worried that people would confuse light braking with the tail-lights just being lit at night. Maybe make the brake lights in the tail-lights different from the regular light?-- acurafan07, Aug 21 2007 love the linky...
[acura] the secret here is how the brain is perceiving the brightness levels. The bulb filament is being pulsed on and off. So the brightness level of the bulb (when “on”) is always the same. The difference is the time in which the bulb is off, cooling down and glowing.-- evilpenguin, Aug 21 2007 Baked on Mercedes since 2006.-- marklar, Aug 21 2007 So this WAS a good idea......-- evilpenguin, Aug 21 2007 Hasn't this been around several times already? That's why I never posted it...-- elhigh, Aug 21 2007 Probably, I just want to see it happen on all cars. Sorry if this has been done too many times-- evilpenguin, Aug 21 2007 PWM works better with LED's. As with all of the other discussions on this issue, I think variable deceleration lights are more practical.
That, or just make sure drivers are spatially aware.-- Custardguts, Aug 22 2007 random, halfbakery