Lighting Up The Future
The Age
Thursday February 19, 2004
``Smart" studs could be coming to a road near you. By Kevin Norbury.
INTELLIGENT road studs - or smart cats' eyes - which emit light to warn drivers of upcoming school crossings, roundabouts, fogs or icy conditions are being trialled in Victoria by VicRoads.
The intelligent studs, developed by British firm Astucia, are being assessed by VicRoads in the Western District, in northern Victoria, in Gippsland and at Narbethong, north-east of Melbourne.
VicRoad's manager of intelligent transport systems, Dean Zabrieszach, says an advantage of the studs is that they can be seen day and night, unlike traditional road-marking methods. ``The difference between the RPMs (raised pavement markers) you see on the roads now and the ones being marketed by Astucia and others are that these have within them light-emitting diodes (LEDs)," he says.
The LEDs can flash in sequence or emit coloured light to warn of particular upcoming hazards on the road. At a junction, for example, they can turn orange, then red, to give a driver a better chance of seeing the traffic lights change.
By using sensors, they may also be able to warn drivers of vehicles on single-lane country roads of others overtaking ahead. There's obvious potential to reduce the chances of a head-on collision, a common hazard in rural areas.
At Colac and at Harcourt, near Bendigo, the studs are being used to warn drivers of fog or icy road conditions, and at Morwell, in Gippsland, to delineate the road's edge and on a roundabout.
At Winchelsea, between Geelong and Colac, the smart studs have been set up at a school crossing. ``They're controlled by the lollipop lady," says Ken Jack, managing director of Astucia (Australia) in Geelong.
``The studs strobe towards the driver from the centre of the road, and the crossing, and give (the driver) the impression the car is travelling faster than it is - so they (the drivers) slow down."
Other smart studs light up as soon a they become damp, hence their use in foggy areas. ``And when the temperature of the road surface gets low enough for black ice to form, they turn on three LEDs that start strobing across the stud," says Jack.
Zabrieszach estimates that to equip one school crossing with smart cats' eyes could cost between $10,000 and $20,000.
However, these latest cats' eyes could be even smarter than we think. According to Astucia, it is possible to fit them with miniature cameras to record car numberplates, which suggests they could effectively be used to catch drivers doing the wrong thing.
Zabrieszach refuses to be drawn on that question. ``That (speed cameras) is a fairly sensitive area for us," he says.
When the same question was put to Jack he says: ``I guess so, yes." But at this point, he says, studs with numberplate-recognition capabilities are used only in secure car parks.
``It's just one of hundreds of examples. It (the numberplate recognition stud) can also activate boom gates, all that sort of thing."
It appears the smart cats' eyes are popular with many people.
Being relatively expensive and - it seems - sometimes a little too noticeable, unscrupulous people have been pinching them.
``They are something new, very visible, and we have had quite a few removed from the road pavement," admits Zabrieszach.
© 2004 The Age