Device Jams Drivers’ Phone Signals, Alerts Police, Public and Passengers
July 21, 2012Source: Wired
There’s no shortage of devices that supposedly prevent drivers from talking or texting by blocking mobile phone signals or that alert parents and employers about the behavior. But the Cellphone Accident Preventer (CAP) from a trio of researchers at an Indian university takes preventing behind-the-wheel mobile phone use to a new Orwellian level by making distracted-driving indiscretions public – and automatically ratting them out to the police.
Abdul Shabeer and two of his colleagues at India’s Anna University of Technology primarily developed CAP to combat the 20 percent of fatal road accidents involving trucks and other heavy vehicles caused by driver mobile phone use. Like other systems, CAP jams phone signals, using a small antenna above the driver seat, which the researchers claim only disables the driver’s phone, while passengers are free to call, text, tweet and Facebook at will.
But by using RFID technology, CAP can also alert the police, the general public or other passengers in the car if a driver is trying to discreetly check his phone when his hands should be on the wheel. If CAP detects that driver is using a cellphone, “The vehicle license plate information, which is already stored in the system, will be transmitted to a receiver placed on the traffic signal post, which in turn displays the license number in an LCD display so that police can take legislative action against the driver,” Shabeer told Wired. “At the same time, a warning message or sound will be given to passengers sitting inside the vehicle indicating that the driver is using a cellphone.”
CAP is still just a research project, with no immediate plans for commercial deployment. “We have completed the demo system and currently are in the process of implementing the system in the real world,” Shabeer adds. “For this we require funding support from an organization or government.”
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