Thermal camera warns about wildlife
Peter Händel, Professor of Signal Processing at KTH, has developed a system for thermal cameras which may contribute to decreasing the number of traffic accidents involving wild animals. This system has won him the road safety prize entitled The Golden Moose (Guldälgen).
The decrease in the price of thermal cameras has meant that more car manufacturers are installing cameras and other systems to enable drivers to see better in the dark. At the same time there is a risk connected with too much information on displays in vehicles.
Peter Händel’s research is instead based on a computer programme that reads off the images from the thermal camera and has learned to recognise wild animals. Then the system warns the driver when something is actually 100 meters ahead of the vehicle by, for example, showing a signal light.
“This is research’s contribution to the “zero vision” campaign to reduce road traffic deaths,” says Peter Händel.
However he feels that it is industry’s task to develop the finished product. He has observed that Swedish industry, with companies such as Autoliv, is leading developments within road safety.
The Golden Moose was presented for the first time by the Älgskadeföreningen (a non-profit organisation insuring against such accidents). The prize is destined for an individual, company or government agency who has contributed to disseminating knowledge on accidents involving wild animals or who has developed innovations aimed at preventing such accidents.
“The Golden Moose forms an extremely important part of our efforts to increase awareness of this type of accident. Rewarding those who help to increase knowledge concerning these issues and is an important step towards decreasing the number of accidents,” comments Åsa Torstensson, Minister for Communications.
The Älgskadeföreningen hopes that these thermal cameras will cause positive side effects such as revealing how much hidden wildlife there is close to the road. This might lead to reduced speeds which would also decrease other types of road accidents. Last year there were more than 35 000 accidents involving wild animals reported to the police in Sweden. Every year ten people are killed as a result of such accidents.
Håkan Soold