Traffic management in the metros is the biggest challenge that affects every man on the move. The accidents number at the junctions are more fatal and the number has increased much more with more powerful engines being affordable to people. The traffic police department has made quite an investment in installing traffic signals the major junctions. Yet, they are forced to employ thousands of traffic polices even at the junctions which are equipped with traffic light signal. There are two reasons to this:
- The technology is not yet mature and traffic police have to manually operate at the busy hour.
- High number of traffic rules violations by commuters.
This model needs installation of high resolution video camera with 360 degree viewing angle along with a computation device with 3G or WiFi connectivity. A conceptual view is given below:
The camera takes continuous video in 360 degree range. Neural network algorithm is developed for decision taking. The camera would be installed which would capture the data round the clock for at least 24 hours and the neural network with image processing learns and identifies the empty road. Now, with this knowledge the algorithm would be able to find the amount of vehicles present on each road at the given time and calculates amount of time to be allocated for each side of traffic at the junction. An intelligent scheduler algorithm then operates the traffic lights. The scheduler would allocate dynamic timings for each side unlike fixed time in the traditional traffic signal controllers.
All these data would be continuously pumped onto the centralized traffic management server. Each of such nodes would have unique identity and the server computes the best suitable path using path finder algorithm such as graph theory to reach from point A to point B at the given time.
If the junction is very busy round the clock day and night and IR camera may be used instead and neural network algorithm and image processing would need to be modified accordingly. There would be no any other change in the scheduler algorithm or the path finder algorithm.
In order to monitor traffic rules violations, the camera stream may be also relayed to the centralized traffic monitoring center. In case of accidents occurrence, the videos recorded would be quite helpful in tracing the victim and violators. The computation device at the traffic signals may also be equipped with doppler sensors.
Commuters can subscribe to this portal paying some nominal charges monthly or send an SMS to this portal and they would get updates of traffic routes instantly on their smart phones at emails or SMS as per their preferences. This would be the revenue generation model. There would also be no need to employ traffic polices at the junction under the harsh weather conditions and pollution. This would save the health hazards of traffic polices and at the same time save traffic management cost for the department as well. On the other hand, life would be quite easier for professionals who generally waste a considerable amount time travelling.
