Toyota's newest 2008 Crown Hybrid features an upgraded 'Night View' system that can display the view of the road ahead. As Nikkei Automotive Technology reports, while the previous model did the same thing, the new version (which was just released in May) employs pattern recognition to recognize pedestrians. When it sees them, it draws big yellow boxes around both the pedestrians and around the entire screen. This way, it's obvious enough to the driver that he or she doesn't have to take his eyes off the road for more than a split second.

While the entire LCD now sports a whopping 1280-by-480-pixel resolution, the Night View portion measures 614-by-346 pixels. The pattern recognition doesn't work right at speeds above about 38 mph, and it also doesn't work if it's too dark, i.e. if it's dark enough to need the car's high beams, or if weather conditions are too rough.

The system is pre-programmed with multiple potential "shapes" that could be pedestrians. So whenever it sees something, it can match what it sees to what is in its database. Toyota is now working on a version that also detects animals and bicycles.