Drones have become more common, and are commercially available for consumers. Small drones can be used for unauthorized information gathering, or to cause disruptions. This has created a need for safe, effective countermeasures against drones. In this thesis, a method for countermeasures against drone imaging is investigated. The method is based on aiming and focusing a laser beam toward the camera of the drone. The retroreflection from the target is used as a feedback signal. Risley prisms were used to aim the beam, and an electrowetting lens was used to control the focus. Control algorithms based on the method called Stochastic Parallel Gradient Descent (SPGD), line searching and the Kalman filter are presented and evaluated. An experimental setup was used to track a moving target and dazzle a camera, demonstrating the validity of the method. Additionally, a simulation environment was used to estimate the potential performance of the control algorithms in a realistic scenario, under ideal circumstances.

<p>To give a realistic impression in a driving simulator for nighttime driving, there are many challenging aspects to consider. One of the most important aspects is the illumination caused by the headlights of the own vehicle. To give a realistic impression there is the need to consider the characteristics of the headlight in use to be able to represent main and dipped beam, but also to represent different models and types of headlights. </p><p>Another important aspect is the dazzling effects caused by the light cast by other vehicles upon the driver. These effects are not only important to give a realistic and visually appealing simulation, but also to simulate blinding effects which may affect the drivers ability to perceive the traffic environment to a large degree. </p><p>This thesis describes methods to simulate these vital aspects of night-drive simulation in real-time using the capabilities of today's graphics cards.</p>

To give a realistic impression in a driving simulator for nighttime driving, there are many challenging aspects to consider. One of the most important aspects is the illumination caused by the headlights of the own vehicle. To give a realistic impression there is the need to consider the characteristics of the headlight in use to be able to represent main and dipped beam, but also to represent different models and types of headlights. Another important aspect is the dazzling effects caused by the light cast by other vehicles upon the driver. These effects are not only important to give a realistic and visually appealing simulation, but also to simulate blinding effects which may affect the drivers ability to perceive the traffic environment to a large degree. This thesis describes methods to simulate these vital aspects of night-drive simulation in real-time using the capabilities of today's graphics cards.

L’étonnement a une place privilégiée dans la vie des idées, considéré comme l’émotion à l’origine de toutes formes de spéculations philosophiques, il est l’objet d’étude le plus adéquat pour analyser les problèmes communs du cinéma et de la philosophie : le mouvement (Thalès, Héraclite, Zénon d’Élée), la remise en question du réel (Descartes), l’accès au savoir par les sens (Platon). Par l’incarnation de « personnages conceptuels » (l’idiot, le sceptique, le jeune philosophe), le cinéma offre la possibilité d’accéder à des raisonnements philosophiques de manière empirique. Le cinéma sera ainsi considéré comme un outil pouvant mettre en scène le doute cartésien grâce à une déconstruction progressive du réel. Chaque film étudié matérialisera une étape de cette déconstruction : Three Days of the Condor de Sydney Pollack : la remise en question du réel ; Aguirre, la colère de Dieu de Werner Herzog et Bullitt de Peter Yates : le déni du réel, la filmographie de Buster Keaton (courts et longs-métrages) : la trahison des apparences, les œuvres abstraites de Stan Brakhage : la réduction du réel à un entrelacement de formes et de sensations. Cette thèse proposera une redéfinition des causes et des conditions du surgissement de l’étonnement. En effet, étant principalement lié au nouveau dans les différents traités sur l’émotion étudiés (Descartes, Darwin, Charles Le Brun, William James), le rapport entre étonnement et mémoire nécessitera un développement. Ainsi par l’intermédiaire d’une revalorisation de la mémoire affective dans la perception d’un objet étonnant, cette émotion pourra enfin être prise en compte en fonction du passé du sujet. Les différents types de reconnaissance engagés dans la vision d’un film seront analysés pour comprendre à quel moment ce phénomène passe d’un événement mineur à un événement majeur. Le cinéma pourra de cette manière être employé comme un laboratoire mémoriel. Grâce à une approche anthropologique de la première cause de l'étonnement au cinéma : "les feuilles qui bougent" c’est-à-dire le mouvement, le mythe des images vivantes sera étudié du point de vue de sa persistance à différents moments de l’histoire du cinéma du Napoléon d’Abel Gance à Young Sherlock Holmes de Barry Levinson. Ce premier principe étonnant du dispositif cinématographique donnera lieu à une inversion, 4 l’étonnement suscité par une autre vie des images cette fois insufflée par la suspension ou l’arrêt sur image. Enfin « le phénomène saturé » défini par Jean-Luc Marion comme un étonnement surplombant le champ de vision du spectateur sera divisé en une typologie des différents types de saturation au cinéma (le réel surpris, le montage cubiste, la plénitude du cadre etc.), dans le but de trouver un équivalent visuel de l'évidence (première obsession cartésienne). Le dessein de cette typologie inspirée par Descartes sera de réhabiliser les sens dans la construction du savoir / Astonishment has a privileged place in the history of philosophy, considered as the emotion behind all forms of philosophical speculation; it is the most appropriate object of study to analyze the common problems of cinema and Philosophy: movement (Thales, Heraclitus, Zeno of Elea), questioning reality (Descartes), access to knowledge through the senses (Plato). Cinema will thus be considered as a tool able to portray Cartesian doubt through a progressive deconstruction of reality. Each film studied materializes a stage of this deconstruction: Three Days of the Condor by Sydney Pollack: questioning reality Aguirre, the Wrath of God by Werner Herzog and Bullitt by Peter Yates: the denial of reality the filmography of Buster Keaton (short and feature films); the betrayal of appearances the abstract works of Stan Brakhage: the reduction of reality to an interweaving of forms and sensations. Thus, by the incarnation of « conceptual characters » (the idiot, the skeptic, the young philosopher), cinema allows us to empirically access to philosophical reasoning. This development will also involve the redefinition of the causes and conditions of astonishment. Indeed, the relationship between astonishment and memory will necessitate a further investigation into, since it is mainly linked to the new and the extraordinary in the different treatises on emotion studied (Descartes, Darwin, Charles Le Brun, William James). Thus, by means of a revaluation of the affective memory in the perception of an astonishing object, this emotion can finally be considered according to the past of the subject. The different types of recognition involved in filmic vision will be analyzed to understand when this phenomenon moves from being a minor event to a major event. In this way, cinema can be used as a memorial laboratory. Thanks to an anthropological approach to the primary cause of astonishment in the cinema: « the moving leaves » (i.e. movement), the myth of living images, will be studied through its persistence at different moments of cinema history from Abel Gance’s Napoleon to Young Sherlock Holmes by Barry Levinson. The first principle of cinematic astonishment leads us to consider its inversion, the astonishment aroused by another aspect of life of images, one dominated by the suspension or the halting of the image. Finally, the « Saturated Phenomena » (defined by Jean-Luc Marion as an astonishment overlooking the spectator's field of vision) will be divided into a typology of the different 6 types of saturation in the cinema (cubist montage, crowded frames, etc.) in order to find a visual equivalent of the evidence (the first Cartesian obsession) and to reassert the value of the senses in the construction of knowledge