Ever saw a camera along the side highway and were worried that you would get a ticket for speeding? You probably don’t have to worry, these cameras have been installed with a different purpose in mind. Most of these devices have been installed to monitor traffic conditions and provide visuals in the case of a collision. However, as significant technological advances have been made in this sector (mainly caused by artificial intelligence), these devices might get another purpose. They could actually help us optimize our traffic flow or identify dangerous zones were accidents often occur.
Researchers from the Texas Advanced Computing Center and the University of Texas Center for Transportation Research are currently developing software which can perform traffic analyses and find patterns through deep learning and data mining. This software could easily analyse the thousands of hours worth of footage the government collects each day.
Whilst this new tool is still in its infant stage, it already has to ability to use raw traffic footage to recognize objects – people, cars, buses, trucks, bicycles, motorcycles and traffic lights – and characterize how those objects move and interact. The collected information can then be analyzed and queried by officials to facilicate evidence-based decision making.
As this, and similar tools will quickly be further developed, they have the ability to optimize our daily commute to the office, reducing traffic jams and minimizing the potential of collisions. I, for one, can’t wait of these technologies to be incooperated into our daily lives so I will no longer spend a major part of my life cursing in traffic jams. Are you as excited about the potential of artificial intelligence as I am? Let me know in the comments!
Source:
https://sciencenode.org/feature/urban-traffic-and-ai.php
