Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 8, 1994 TAG: 9401080182
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Sensors installed this week on U.S. 460 in Blacksburg will be able to count cars and eventually allow researchers to identify the type of vehicle by sound.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg in smart technology," said Greg Pieper, who developed the product for AT&T.
The communications giant is teaming with Virginia Tech's Center for Transportation Research to test the foot-long, box-shaped sensors that hang from the Prices Fork Road exit sign.
The sensors now can basically only count the number of vehicles and determine in which lane the traffic is moving. That's where Tech comes into the picture.
"What we really hope to do is take the equipment and demonstrate that it can do a lot more than that," said Brian Woerner, an electrical engineering professor at the university.
Each of the sensors contains 76 "ultra-sensitive" directional microphones that will monitor vehicle sounds. They are connected by hard wires to a computer that sits in a protective metal box just off the highway, 670 feet away.
Woerner and other researchers at the Center for Transportation will analyze the sound waves and figure out a way to classify the vehicles in different groups: car, van, bus, light truck or heavy truck.
Crews from the Virginia Department of Transportation eventually will put up two more sensors near the control box that will allow researchers to monitor vehicle speed.
It took just two days to erect the sensors, despite a lingering drizzle that hindered efforts Friday.
"We're going to catch a death of a cold out here," Pieper said. "But I guess it's not that bad because I was supposed to get some rainy weather data and if it hadn't rained today then I would have had to come back."
by CNB