Mobile phones may allow everyone to communicate instantly, but they are also rapidly becoming a global killer, accounting for 20% of global fatal road accidents, half of which occur on Indian roads.
Abdul Shabee, a doctoral student at Anna University of Science and Technology in Coimbatore, and his colleague RSD developed an innovative new technology. Wahidabanu and H. Abdul Zubar will interfere with the mobile phones used by truck drivers during long-distance travel to avoid accidents.
Trucks and heavy vehicle drivers rarely turn off their phones during such journeys, but the invasiveness of the device, including making numbers, making phone calls, or simply holding the phone while driving, may pose a direct danger to the road, Shabeer told IANS Chennai.
Whenever the driver switches on the ignition, the interference system will operate. The interference device receives radiation emitted by the mobile phone. The device can determine whether the phone is being used by the driver or passengers.
Once it is detected that the driver is using a mobile phone, the low speed jammer will disable it without affecting other passengers' phones. The system is powered by the vehicle, "said Shabir, a graduate of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Chennaia.
When truck drivers make phone calls, their braking response usually slows down. According to statistical data, they are more likely to get involved in traffic accidents than those who have been keeping their phones off, "said Sabir, who previously worked at IBM. Bangalore, India.
In addition, using a mobile phone can distract attention, delay response to traffic lights, lead to poor lane discipline, and drivers unintentionally lengthen the distance from the car in front. All of these factors increase the risk of accidents, "Shabeer said.
The cost of the complete system, including the signal jammers, is approximately 2500 rupees. The researchers plan to commercialize this product, "Shaber added.
Shaber said that India is one of the few countries to lose nearly 3% of its GDP due to road traffic accidents.
Although it is well known that India has the highest number of traffic accidents in the world, no one has studied the number of drivers who use mobile phones to cause traffic accidents. We conducted a survey of over 2800 drivers. The results show that 20% of drivers worldwide have accidents due to the use of mobile phones, "Shabeer said.
Shabeeer participated in this project together with Wahidabanu, Dean of Tamilnadu Salem School of Government Engineering, and Zubar, Researcher at Trichy National Institute of Technology. The project took nearly three years to develop.
This technology can be applied to all vehicles worldwide.
Unlike us, other systems used overseas do not differentiate between driver and passenger phone usage. Our technology is groundbreaking, "Shabeer said.
