It is usually seen that the traffic on the side of the road where we are traveling is crowded and the opposite side is almost empty but the green signal is given for the same period for every direction without assigning any priority.

Caught in one such occasion while traveling for a medical emergency, Deepraj Chowdhary, a B.Tech student from the International Institute of Information Technology-Naya Raipur hit upon an idea to use artificial intelligence to speed up traffic more smartly.

Christened as Smart Traffic Signal Management System for Roadways, Chowdhary has used artificial intelligence in python programming language and written algorithms to give more green signals for the direction which has the highest density of vehicles. Currently, the waiting duration for vehicles at traffic signals is equally divided irrespective of the density though traffic police can adjust it manually. Moreover, almost all the major traffic signals are attached with cameras that send live feed to the control room.

In a bid to test out his new software, Chowdhury has taken a 20-minute video of chock-a-block road traffic in the US and used it to test his Smart Signal System through online simulation.

“It has been very successful and we filed papers for a patent with Indian government during the Covid pandemic last August. It takes anywhere between 8-10 months for an award of a patent,” he said.

Given the sensitivity, state governments do not allow to test any new development in traffic signal unless and until it is approved by the proper agency, said Chowdhury who was guided by faculty members, Maifuz Ali and Deepika Gupta. The same application can also have the technology to detect any emergency vehicles such as ambulance and fire engines in the traffic and give priority signal to them.

In case of an accident, the smart signal can send a direct alert to the nearest hospital and police station so that precious life can be saved, he said. After receiving proper approval, Chowdhury plans to license the software package to start-ups for implementation not only in India but also abroad. The student has worked on many research projects that integrated blockchain with Artificial Intelligence for network security.

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