A “smart” transport monitoring system developed by a joint academic-business team has helped reduce traffic jams around Hsinchu, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) said yesterday.
The team, whose members come from Academia Sinica’s Institute of Information Science, National Taiwan Ocean University and Elan Microelectronics Corp, discussed the potential applications of their system at a news conference at the ministry in Taipei.
The team was put together by National Taiwan University’s MOST Joint Research Center for AI Technology and All Vista Healthcare — one of the four AI research centers the ministry has set up — to explore applications of machine deep learning in tackling multimedia data, institute director Mark Liao (廖弘源) said.
The research is guided by proposals from Elan.
The team’s system, which utilizes fisheye monitors with a 360-degree view and intelligent traffic flow analytics software, can record and track the flow and colors, models and directions of cars crossing an area, Elan chairman and president Yeh I-hau (葉儀晧) said.
The monitor can capture images at night or on rainy days, a task that conventional monitors perform poorly, he said, adding that it can recognize scooters, even though they are tiny on the screen.
The system has been installed at some intersections in Hsinchu County and in the Philippines and might be adopted by other municipalities in Taiwan as well as Thailand, he added.
Using real-time data, traffic jams can be eased by adjusting traffic lights, said Daniel Lien (連仲祺), vice president of Pixford Corp, an Elan subsidiary.
Traffic on the roads connecting Hsinchu City and Jhubei City in Hsinchu County is often congested during rush hours, but the average journey time has fallen from 16 minutes to 6 minutes, with the number of vehicles per hour dropping from 3,483 to 3,097 after the local governments made adjustments based on the system’s data, he said.
The system is suitable for Southeast Asian countries where a large number of scooters is a headache, Lien said, adding that it could be installed along highways to monitor traffic flow or accidents.
The system could also be used in crime-fighting efforts, Minister of Science and Technology Chen Liang-gee (陳良基) said, but it should not be used for improper surveillance purposes.
The system would be showcased at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, the team said.
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