SBIR-STTR Award

The danger posed to bus passengers crossing a roadway, especially in low light or visibility conditions continues to be a significant and non-trivial challenge. The project proposes to develop a system to illuminate a virtual crosswalk onto the roadway to provide for a uniform and predictable safe walking pathway for the crossing passenger along with alerting the passenger when it is either safe or unsafe to cross. The system will leverage camera image analysis methods to determine the appropriate walkway, provide illuminations based upon ambient conditions, and for the creation of a virtual barrier to monitor the status of approaching traffic to alert the passenger and bus driver of unsafe conditions.Specific technical objectives are to finalize the specifications for the illuminator relating to coverage area, intensity, color and patterns based upon ambient conditions, cameras for resolution requirements, and processing capabilities for image analysis, tracking of passengers crossing to illuminate them or the area around them, determination of approaching vehicles rate of speed change and making a determination on what action to take including alerting the passenger, bus driver, or potentially the approaching vehicle using the illumination system or applicable V2X system as appropriate

The danger posed to bus passengers crossing a roadway, especially in low light or visibility conditions continues to be a significant and non-trivial challenge. The project proposes to develop a system to illuminate a virtual crosswalk onto the roadway to provide for a uniform and predictable safe walking pathway for the crossing passenger along with alerting the passenger when it is either safe or unsafe to cross. The system will leverage camera image analysis methods to determine the appropriate walkway, provide illuminations based upon ambient conditions, and for the creation of a virtual barrier to monitor the status of approaching traffic to alert the passenger and bus driver of unsafe conditions. Specific technical objectives are to finalize the specifications for the illuminator relating to coverage area, intensity, color and patterns based upon ambient conditions, cameras for resolution requirements, and processing capabilities for image analysis, tracking of passengers crossing to illuminate them or the area around them, determination of approaching vehicles rate of speed change and making a determination on what action to take including alerting the passenger, bus driver, or potentially the approaching vehicle using the illumination system or applicable V2X system as appropriate