Mobile app “Road Vision” developed by a transportation research team has won a prize of $25,000 and a beta-testing license with the D.C. government in the recent GigabitxDC competition which was sponsored by the city for recognizing apps that address civic problems.
The app translates video data from close-circuit cameras and individual cell phones into traffic-safety data. The app also tracks the speed and motion of vehicles in the videos by using artificial intelligence.
Samer H. Hamdar, an engineering professor at George Washington University, led the winning team that included his student researchers. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser awarded a total of $34,000 in prize money in the competition which was sponsored by U.S. Ignite, a smart-city nonprofit.
Hamdar said that metrics matters and the app also measures other characteristics like density and flow of traffic. “Flow, density, and speed are good in terms of mobility metrics, but they don’t actually look at proximity. When you talk about safety, its all about safety. That’s why you need to track the trajectory [of vehicles], which is intensive for AI — and that’s where the research and innovation aspect comes in,” explained Hamdar.
Road Vision's developers received a $25,000 cash prize and a license to be beta-tested with the DC government https://t.co/vvt0TPe2Pn
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Hamdar said the app is different from similar ones currently in use such as Waze and Google Maps as it focuses on localized traffic information to benefit individual commuters. He added that transportation officials can also make use of the app for taking informed traffic management decisions.
A portion of the total prize will be utilized for making the AI’s programming, said Hamdar, adding that the rest of the money will be distributed as stipends to his student researchers. He’s hoping to make the app operational in parts of D.C. by the end of this year.
HowsMyDrivingDC, another Twitter bot-turned-mobile-app that makes it easy to report parking violations, received the rest of GigabitxDC prize money. It acquired an honorable-mention citation and $9,000 in prize money.
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