Deepak Rajamohan and Bhavana Ganu’s research can make it easy for all to assess road conditions and tackle traffic accordingly
Deepak Rajamohan and Bhavana Ganu. (Photo: DC)
Hyderabad: IIIT-Hyderabad students Deepak Rajamohan and Bhavana Ganu won the first prize at the Tracking and Imaging Challenge at the Photogrammetric Computer Vision Conference held in Zurich, Switzerland, recently.
The duo’s research paper on assessing road conditions and estimating the surface, made use of just everyday technologies like Global Positioning System and image data for the competition, making it an easily approachable concept. Deepak says, “We had placed a camera on the windshield of the car to take photos at regular intervals of the roads we went through. There was an accelerometer to record the displacement so that we could estimate how bumpy or smooth the road was. We also used a GPS sensor documenting the exact locations.”
Through their prototype, the group wanted to map the road texture and its condition so that they could provide the data to the local municipality to help in the maintenance process. “So far, we have only tried it near our college, in areas like Gachibowli and Indiranagar, which have a fair share of good and bad roads,” adds Bhavana.
The team is now trying to add more features to their project, which could help people locate potholes and speed breakers and traffic conditions and drive accordingly.
Bhavana says, “Since all the parameters we have used (like the camera and GPS) can be accommodated in a smart phone, we plan to eventually convert this research paper into an Android app, which could be used in any city across the country.”
Deepak adds, “Compared to expensive road monitoring systems, this is a low-cost solution that can go into a smart phone. So common people can contribute to the data collection, which means abundant amount of data can be collected. So, more the data, better the accuracy of road texture and condition mapping.”
( Source : dc correspondent )
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