To my knowledge no one is currently taking advantage of camera sensors’ (typically) inherent ability to capture inferred (IR) data. If someone is, good on them. Someone will tell me at some point.

Camera sensors often (always?) are able to collect data beyond the visible spectrum into the inferred (and presumably into the ultraviolet (UV). It seems clear to me that parsing this data can be useful to an autonomous vehicle in identifying human and other animal agents on and near the roadways. (There may be similar benefits available in parsing the UV wavelengths as well.)

There are situations (especially at night) where IR will allow human and other animal agents to stand out against the background in ways the visible spectrum cannot. IR (and UV) may be able to usefully augment the lasers currently being used as well to provide a more robust dataset and thus more complete picture of the world for autonomous vehicles.

This may also help to solve some of the problems associated with windows and similar either reflective or transparent surfaces (as they should typically produce different IR ranges than the surrounding surfaces (and again perhaps UV differences)).

Another related source for potentially useful information would be comparing polarized lens data with standard lens data.

Thoughts?