2018 Spring Seminar #7: Using BLE Technology to Alert Motorists Approaching Work Zones

2018 Spring Seminar #7: Using BLE Technology to Alert Motorists Approaching Work Zones

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Whenever, I introduce, our speaker and learn a lot more about them than I knew before I. Had. Got all this extra information. We're. Honored. To have dr., chen shubao here presenting. Today just. To tell, you a little bit about his background. He. Finished, his master's here. In mechanical, engineering in. 1996. He. Then left and worked for, a company called telematic. Which, is out in the suburbs here in the metro area and, was. Essentially, one of their, software. Engineers, from 1996. To 2002. And that's. When he came to, University of Minnesota and joined us as a. Staff. Member in 2002. And has been here ever since I totally forgot how long he had been over. Here he, is a, senior. Systems, engineer, in. The, what, is now called the civil, environmental, and geo engineering, department. Here at the University and, has, worked on a whole variety of different projects, over the years the. Work he's going to talk about today, represents. One aspect, of that one. Thing that I totally forgot about but. For many years he developed educational. Software. Simulation. Software, that is still available, on a university, website called the street. Um. NBD, you and. I, still remember the software, developed, called gridlocked, buster that. Which, are games that basically, learn about, signal, traffic signals and the like that. Was used by high schools and many other students, over the years. Essentially. Dr., Lau has worked on connected, vehicle technologies. Assistive, technologies, the support navigation of wayfinding, by, the visually, impaired but he's done other things like work on weigh-in-motion, data. Quality, surface brake performance, measures. Incident. Decision support systems, and, adaptive. Signal priority, strategies, among the, many other subjects, and so without. Further ado, I'm going to let dr. Lao talked about using Bluetooth, Low, Energy technology. To learn motors motorists. About the approaching work zones. Your. Honor, Thank. You max and for that kind introduction and, as Max mentioned that, my. Presentation, today will focus on the using the Bluetooth algĂșn, use this tool to alert motorists. Approaching. That a work zone so. This. Is my outline here I will, spend, some time talk. About some background, about what zone safety, and, also briefly. About the Bluetooth technology, as you and already. Know that Bluetooth, technology, has been used in a wide. Variety of different application, commercially. And in the industry as well and, then. I will focus on the objective and, our approach of, providing. In. Vehicle messages for. Motorists. Approaching, the work zone and then the mostly I'll probably I shared on. The experiment, our experiment, design and the results, that we. Have and, then I will conclude with a few benefits. And impact. Of the system future work and then we'll open up for some. Discussion, so. As a background that according. To the United States DLT. That. In 2005, the statistic. Estimated. That is over I mean almost hundred, thousand. People that hundred. Thousand crashes in the war zones and, in. The past I mean couple. Years that there's a big increase and from 2014. This almost. 8 percent of increase and that, resulted, about I mean over 700. Deaths in in. In. That year, and as. Far as injury that almost 50 thousands, of injuries and imagine. That that many people that, involve. In the work zone crashes and. For. Workers along this over 20,000. Workers that were injures in in the war zone and with. A 12%, of those that involve or related, to two traffic incidents. And as. You many of you know that an, atheist. Application. The intelligence, transportation. Tools that has been used by, many transportation, agencies, try to help, improve, the safety and, make, drivers, more aware of the. Work zone situation. And in, recent years that as the smartphone, is more prevalent, in our community. Distracting. Driving, it's becoming a big issues and in. Generals, and not to mention that approaching, work zone and so. As. Far as a work zone safety, that according. To the statistics, that speeding. Is the biggest concern, and often, time because, of the depends on the war zone geometry, and layout time of the day traffic, conditions, that people, not, paying attention.

Speeding, It's our one big issues in war zone safety. Congestion. Zazz people, are traveling, more the. National VMT it's increasing, although in the past i mean five, six years it kind of drops the train dropped a little bit but recent years that the National, vehicle. Miles traveled. And. As, I mentioned earlier that distraction. In. Addition, to using, smart phone texting, that people in reaching radio, or doing other things that. Grooming. Or adjusting, radio other, activities, that create distractions. And so. That cost, I mean the biggest safety. Concerns, so. As a result of the public perceptions. That about war zone war zone conditions. And people sometimes feel over. Comfort in system well I've been through this kind of book zone there's not much activity going on the, sign is there but, I mean traffic, is going fine and I mean they're just kind of business, as normal so oftentimes, the desire to traffic, control devices. The. Impact, of I mean the use of this the benefit of this are oftentimes, compromise, could be because people didn't pay attention to those and they get used to it and so that becomes issues. Living. Lots of technology, or the devices being developed, particularly, focusing, on the active, work zone safety, technologies. And so, these are particularly used that to, alert. The public also alert. Workers. That what, is going on as a vehicle is insuring, in the work zone area, so, here just a table I borrow from this reference, this is the publication. From, 2017. And about, the active work zone safety technology. And I. Added, a field that technology, or test that, in. Response that these are recent tests using those technology, in different states, here so as you can see that. Kinematic. Technology, infrared, pneumatic. Microwave, radar. Or radio, these devices, have been developed, designs to alert, the workers as well as informed. Drivers. About they. Are including, the walk song and they need to pay attention and. Many. Of these that provide audio feedback basically. Create, a sound feedback to the workers or but, open time in a war zone environment, it's kind of noisy in the work zone environment, and vehicle, I mean trucks. Entering, leaving, and traffic's. And. Visual. Alerts some of those provide their flashing, lights that alert, motorists, that they are about to enter a war zone or, ensuring. The walk zone that they need to pay attention a, vibe. Reverberation. Some, of those devices that they allows. The, allows. The, workers to receive vibration. Alerts so, they know that somebody entered that or something. Going on they need to get, out of the way right away so. I just quickly mention about two devices, that seems like these two has, been test, in multiple, states and one. Of those is called sono. Blaster, so. Basically it's a big sound. Blaster, attached to the traffic, bearer, as you see from the picture here and it's, a impact, activated, so whenever somebody knocked down the bear I mean, the barrel, and that it will activate, the sound and generate, about 125. Decibel, sound. To alert both the motorists hopefully, the OP motorist is not on the loud radio inside, the vehicle and also, I mean sound, a little workers that they need to get, out of way assuming. That this sufficient, time, and distance for them to react and. Another. System it's called aware. And, basically. It's using, radar and. Radar. The sensors. To detect a particular. Region and see if this vehicle in shooting that zone and that it'll trigger a sound, and also, wirelessly. Sends. Out the signal. To, workers. Helmet, as you see that on that a picture, that the the helmet it's, a little. Devices attached to the helmet so as the workers that I, mean. Receive. The information that, device will vibrate and create some, alert to, the workers, so, these type of device is basically. Focusing.

On The the workers that what they need to do but, basically get. Out of the way because when, you hear the sound and you, hear the vibra feel the vibration, there's, no time to look and run and see what is going on then get out of way often time you just need to get out of way but which, way well, hopefully you're getting out of the right way I don't know but it's basically, this learning. System so, our approach here is slightly. Different, one from this devices, our approach here is that a lot, of times as traveler. Motorists I mean approaching. The work zone as I, mentioned, previously they, are not paying attention or, they get distracted so the focus here is that how can we alert. The drivers about what is going on as they approaching the work zone and previously. As I mentioned that people that they kind of get used to the sign get used to the work zone later activity, or they may be commuting, on the road everyday they are familiar with walk, zone they are but. Who knows that the next day they changed the layout or switch to a different opposite, lane and that's. What things happens, so, the focus is that how can we provide. That in vehicle, message to the drivers but. At. The same time that how can we successfully. And reliably. Provide those information. To -, to drivers. As they are inside a vehicle and what. We like to do is using the wireless, technology, as, you know that cell, phone and. Wi-Fi. And Bluetooth, technology. Is widely available at, pretty, much everybody's, finger tip tip and this, another initiative, many, of you may probably already know the connected, vehicle, program it's a u.s. TLT a, program. That to ensures. The connectivity. And improve safety of vehicles. On our, roadways. System, and DSRC. It's a short-range, communication. Radio. That allows the vehicle to vehicle communicate. And also, allows the vehicle and infrastructure. To communicate, exchange the information and, knowing, that what is going on in that race and ideally. I mean DSRC will be a good opportunity. Candidate. For using this type of application alerting. Drivers about, a, roadway, situation. Hazard. And things like that but, at current time the SRC is not, widely. Available it's, not widely implemented, yet, and it's. Currently it's expensive what. Are the alternative, and so that's why we look into that the cost effective, time a Bluetooth technology and providing, that information on a smart phone to provide, those information. To the users so quickly. About the the Bluetooth said, there's. Been a big advancement. In the Bluetooth technology, in the past few years previously. That we used earlier version, that is a before bluetooth, for that, is basically. An extended, data rate as a classic, of Bluetooth devices that, many, of us that used for wireless, headset, keyboards. And file transfer or speakers. Things like that but. I mean starting in five. Years ago that Bluetooth, Low Energy they, provide a much. Widely.

Application, It's a lower power consumption, it's. Not. Just. High. Data bandwidth, however. It enables, a lot of applications, such as that, we're both devices, I mean the Fitbit on our arm wrist and, blood. Pressure monitors, and many other applications for industrial, transportation, and, many, of you probably know that the IP beacon, application, it's kind of a location. And targeted. Base that applications. Some. Of you might have and an apple, phone and with applications. Running as you are entering a store that you might be want to get some let's, say you want to go get some grocery, but, the phone the app alerts you that well. Some. Grocery, some, I mean apparel, might be shoes might be on sale. You, might go there to check out 50% kind, of I mean a targeted, promotion, and these, being used at a particular. Location could be at the entrance as you entering the Target store for. Example, or at, when you are at a particular I'll, kind of to promote those. Applications. For most of the sales and application. So. This being used in several different applications and, in, the in addiction, to the Bluetooth for that I mean as I mentioned that low-power I mean consumption. Cost-effective. And it has much longer range in, the past I mean the traditional, bluetooth, is about, I mean five to ten meters or up to 30 meters and these, Bluetooth I can up to 300, meters and. Bluetooth. Fired recently is being announced that I think it's become available in. The past couple years that for. Large-scale application. It has, the mesh capability. It increased, the speed two times and also the increase, the range by four times think. About that he could reached up to or maybe a hundred thousand. Meters and to increase the data. Capacity by, eight times and these enable as lots of application, using the low cost and consumer. Grade a bluetooth for many transportation. Applications, just. An example that though many years ago what do we use well this is a an. Older, version of bluetooth this is the classic, Bluetooth, devices that we used and for, guiding, a visually impaired at the, war zone I'm in crosswalk, I mean not a crosswalk, and the sidewalk, that with sidewalk.

Close, That this is the application. That we tested, in in. Saint Paul by the Capitol area so, devices, like that could be used and appeared with a smart phone for this type of application. So. For. Our application, while Bluetooth Low Energy is, great but how, is that going to work in high speed as particularly, in the vehicle air environment, there's, so many obstructions. And works, on there's so many activities going on how, will this work and, I think that's the focus of our these. Research projects, here to look at how Bluetooth, Low Energy devices. Could be used to provide. Information. To, the vehicle, and providing, vehicle messages. A motorist. So. The objective, is that to investigate. How. Those that Bluetooth low-energy, beacons. Could be deployed in walks on the environment, and to, provide in, vehicle warning information in. In addition we will also like to look at that how. Drivers understand. Those messages so as you provide information to the driver where, they create additional distractions. Create, more mental or load, for these people and/or, is too confusing and, we. Want to deploy those at ahead, of the work zone and provide. Spoken. And contextual. Messages. In, using. The smartphone and this. Message could be updated remotely, and I, mean as, frequent, as possible, to make sure that the information that is provided to. The motorists, it's correct, and timely. Because, often time that we as we see those assigned. Messages, on in work zone that, you see Walker's ahead but, as you approaching, the walk zone nobody. There right. Or as you saw something what truck is activity, going, on but as you travel, by there's no activity and sometimes, you kind of lose trust on those signs because information, it's, important, but it's not timely, and oftentimes people will just get used to it and not paying attention to it and one. Thing I like to mention about that door the component, of what I'm presenting here is it's on the technology, looking at how the Bluetooth. Technology, could, be used to providing, vehicle message and. In. Addition to that we also have the two other components that, the, purpose of these projects, is to capture. The drivers attention as they approaching, the war zone so, on a human factor size that we, want to understand, the drivers behavior and, how, this message could be useful for full. Of motorists, and this has been done by the human first lab and. Focus. On are focusing, on their how this information interact, with the human behavior, and what's the, drivers. To understanding. Of those messages and the, other components, on the right here, says their works on mapping in tech just, imagine that when we have a war zone layout, and how this information each, of, each of these. Audio. Information to, the drivers has to be tailored, to the location, specific. Information. As. The construction. Contractor. Laid out the walk zone and where, do we put, those beacons. And what, alice information, should be and that, is the focus of this walk song the mapping, and tag, deployment. And this, work is currently led. By the, doctor. Jang-ho, toast at MTO. Lab and, in. This area and so. I'm. Borrowing the next few slides from the the human factors, and so before we trying. To provide. Any information I think the. Most important, thing is trying to understand, human. The peoples, understand, of different, messages and if, it's creating, any mental. Load or the confusion, to them so, what the the, the. Human factor studied, look, at three. Different types of messages here, the first one as I listed. Shown here is the audio only message, so, basically as you're approaching that, it talks about works, on the head and half mile and reduce.

Piece The, message is divided, into three different components is that it's like, the the highway advisory, information basically. Talks about what. And where. And what is the advisory, information and, these could be becoming a standardized, and people will get used to it so you don't need to have a long verbal information and makes people confused, and next, one is the the in the center is the regular work zone signs that you. See, on this on the street is the walk zone ahead and reduce speed this type of information. And the. Last one is the portable, changeable, message signs that, allows the engineers to move. This device at different location, and program, or whatever, appropriate. Information, tailored, to that work some scenario, so, they did this study, in the simulator, and this is the simulation study this is the. Scenario. That they built it's a 9.2 miles. To a roadway down along the highway 169, and, they. Have two different layouts, and to test out as people driving. Through this roadway was different walks on scenario, and. What what, as their reaction, to different messages, so. This is the the summarized, result, from the simulation, study that the, driving performance that, the result indicated, that the. Better driving performance for, in vehicle message and it's. Worse for those, a changeable, message sign, and. Particularly. In the southbound, direction and, some. Subjective, measures, that it's. Reported, that they prefer, the drivers that the, SubPop participants. That they preferred, in. Vehicle, messages, and for example that the audio only and, they. Also found that using. The audio only the message that has, less mental workload, and, is a better. Usability and, situational, wellness for. In vehicle conditions. And visual. Attention and drivers that with. Portable. Changeable, message signs that, often. Time date I mean gaze, at the sign and trying to understand, the message and they might I mean spend, too much time on a sign so. That's what the fun day I mean the the findings. For the research that on, this human, factors. That allow us that to take the, design and implement, us in our. Application. So for our methodology. Basically that we, reprogram. The Bluetooth low-energy modules. And to act. To. The way that we want for this type of applications. And we, also, develop. An app on the smartphone allowed us to to, communicate with the Bluetooth and providing, vehicle messages, and also. The database that will allow us to look. Into that what our message associated. With each Bluetooth. Beacon and in, addition we also look at the as, I mentioned previously that, the range of the Bluetooth module. Latencies. And, power. Consumption, things like that at different speed and so. This. Is kind of the overall system the architect, it's a pretty simple and straightforward, assuming. That this. Smartphone. That. Located. In in. The vehicle, and a. Beacons, were placed around the wall zone and that, the beacon has initially, that it will can be programmed, to whatever messages, and, we're using the geofence, and, also the. Automatic. Bluetooth. Scanning, to detect. The beacons and provide, audio. Message to to, the drivers as they are approaching, the. Work zone so. We tested, two, different, Bluetooth, modules, and these modules are different from the Bluetooth that you. Particularly. That point in a, commercial. Application. These are much longer range these. Could reach up to the specs s they could reach up to 450, meters, and in, our past that it can easily reach up to 300, meters in. A different speed at the, high speed scenario, so, anyway we test different modules, and we we program, it and place it in the work zone to test the performance of this and as, far as a software development, as I kind of mentioned previously. That, we'd. Operate. The Bluetooth in discovery, mode and many. Of you may know that I mean for data exchange that, Bluetooth could operated, you have to pair it up which takes a lot of time to pair it up for, this type of application, application. We, are not pairing the Bluetooth at all basically we operating, in discovery, mode and. We also create a data base that knowing. That the location, of these devices and, I, think. Eventually that, the location, of this Bluetooth devices and, walks on it'll, be provided, by, the project. I'll, come from. Jeong-ho, toaster. Results. So we'll be able to incorporate those into the overall system, and, geofencing. It's a pretty straightforward technique. That to allowed us to are not, scanning, of bluetooth all the time and this, allowed, us to only to start a Bluetooth scanning at at, certain.

Location At certain parameter, and we. Have two different apps the one is for users, and the other one is for engineers, engineers that, they will be able to configure those message, that. Easily. At at the field and this just shows the pictures, about some of the settings for our testing, purposes, and users. That they don't need to I mean worry about this at all and on the right is in the initial, state that we, have the options to show a visual, display or. So audio, display and so, this is just kind of a configuration on us to test different scenario, and this, just a screen. Capture of the, app for works on engineers, that they can update, and, change those, messages, right in the field right, at the side directly and this allows us some. Flexibility. For them and for, our testing, purposes, as well so. Next I will focus on some of our experiments, and some of the results, that. Came. Out from those experiments, and this is basically the setup I mean we're used, to, two. Different vehicles, it's a passenger, sedan and also a mini, mean. Event and purpose of this is that allowed us to kind. Of testing, obviously, if people is, going to place place. For me in different location, and I. We, purposely, placed this at a cupholder it's kind of right. Off line of sight so basically, the phone cannot directly see where the cone is and we, said that the, Bluetooth device is, that right on top of the barrel right on the roadside and, in. Testing. A different speed here and, so. For. Some of my experiment, we tested, a city streets County, Road and min, Road allow, us to test, at different speed, as. I mentioned we used two different type of vehicles. And we also mounted, Bluetooth. Modules, at different. Configuration. As I shown, you here that on top of a barrel and also. On the barricade, and also, down I, mean attached to a lamppost, and with. Different speed here so. This is one of the tests that that we tested, that University. Campus, here the. Area it's the, baseline. Center that basically the Tennis Center here a little. Bit north, of where, we are right now and basically, we kind of set, rectangular. Geofence. In this setting. Here and we. Placed the Bluetooth modules, and on. The, south end of the the road here and I think this is the 53 here south east here so, as vehicle, traveling in different direction that, our approachable. Our system, will allow the engineers. To program at particular, direction, because some people may argue or if you have bought some only for one direction of the highway and people traveling, on the. Overpass or, underpass, or on opposite, direction will, it get disturb. Or confuse, with those type of information, so. We have the. Directional, settings here allows I mean, in this settings that I mean if we are configured, for the approach one basically going kind of southeast, at as vehicle, going through approach, to Northwest, or going to North, that, it will not trigger the the. Message even though they are inside, the, parameter, of the geofence area.

And. This. Is basically, a setting, as similar, to a regular. Experiment. That we set up and the purpose of mineral this allowed us to test, at I mean 7080, miles per hour in a more control, setting because we don't want to test it on the real highway and create. Problems, or issues and, it's, just one, of those settings that we test it at I 94, when. There's a construction, going. On last year, and, so. Here are some of the result here first. Is down the city street here, basically. On, the left here shows a, map, showing that, as. The vehicle traveling, from south. Toward, north and approaching, the, area. That with the. Bluetooth beacon here so, in this case here that we are not setting up any Tegea, fenced, in this scenario, here, and so. As vehicle, traveling, at about 50, miles. Per hour on the right here that x axis we shows the time and the, vertical showing the the. Speed of the vehicle and the, dots that basically the bulrush indicated, that we, only capture, information when. Display, the information when the vehicle the message is a receipt received, so, as you see that prior to to, approaching, the work zone that there's no I mean Bluetooth information. Receive and so, this indicated, that the, audio or visual. Display, of the watt song information it's. Been triggered, and displayed, to the drivers at about 100 meters ahead. Of the. The, traffic barrel, in this. Example. Here, and. This just shows a similar, experiment however, that in this case here that we set, up a geo-fenced. Area. Here so. The. The Bluetooth scanning, is not going to be triggered by. Person. By the driver obviously, it's not going to because in our testing, we could figure that manually, but in the general I mean in the real world that it has to be running all the time in the background by itself without, human intervention and, so, basically this is that we set up for amateur and that the. Operation. Application. Is running in the background as a service on, your form so you don't have to tap an app to start it basically it's running as you turn on your. Phone it's running in the background all the time just like you're texting, or phone services. And so, as the vehicle approaching. The geofence, area, here that I indicated. That the, starting scanning, that the, green dot indicating, that well once, it enters the, geofence, that Bluetooth scanning, was, activated. And in, this case here it's about, 240. Meters away that the, message was. Display. I said, this detect. The, Bluetooth and. Providing. Information about whatever, the, work zone or the. Message. Is associated, with that Bluetooth, beacon so. Here I have a, homemade. A brief videos, that about basically. Somebody. Is writing behind, on. The, passenger, behind me and then basically capture. This. Audio, here a video here so, I don't know it may be kind of bright here. Let's see here okay. So. You'll be able to see the video display an audio display as its approaching. And. In. The next few seconds, that you will see the. Beer. Barrel. Is right here with the Bluetooth beacon. Right. Let's hatch to to, the barrel so, that's kind of give you an idea on, how. How. The system, works. For. This application. So. Okay. So in addiction, to that that we also did a testing, again this is a similar, setup and just different real way we. Tested up to 70. Miles per hour in this example here, and in, this case it shows that about 125. Meters away that. The. This, this, motto was able to pick up the message. And displayed, the in vehicle message to two, drivers. So. In. Addition to that we took advantage of, the the suboxone, I think, this was that maybe, two. Summers. Ago that. On i-35. Northbound. That, there's a major constructions. Going down there so, we deployed this for, a couple weeks with the system from the Minda engineers that basically. We attach, this to. A. Speed. A radar. Fixture. Here and we left it there for a couple weeks and testing, with our app and using, our own vehicles, and, at.

This Location, and so, the result shows here on the left basically that it's the whole area it's a pretty big. Walk song area here and this. Is i-35. Northbound, right, north, of the 494. And I 35, II interchange, here and so. Basically that we have just placed I mean a geofence, in there and this vehicle is approaching that. Particular, area and scanning, was, activated. And initiate. That, detection. And provide, the message here again. This chart shows that at the 50. Miles per hours that the. Vehicle, was able to receive, the, vehicle. Messages, from the, Bluetooth beacons, at about 160. Meters, away, from. The. Bluetooth beacon where it was placed. So. As. Far as the, power. Consumption, here, and. Here. I'm just comparing. Two. Different. Scenarios with, the baseline, here because. I mean, every, one of our form it's different we have different apps loaded, different service running and how it was I mean operating. Power consumption, is different so, on the left is basically the left bar. Charts, shows that the, apps I mean a service, running, idly, and so basically it's, not I mean doing anything, here and so that we have the app already, installed, in a phone it's I mean the way as it is and. The. Second one shows here basically on the left here that with that with only that that it was the power of that particular, phone will last about 15, hours and then. With that, let's. Say if you have this running and outside, of a war zone area. You. Are not within the geofence you're not doing any scanning, it. Consume. About. 210. Milliamps. Per hour. And. When. You are in an active war zone that's a UV when you are doing continuous. Scanning, that, is the power consumption, that's basically the the Bluetooth we're doing, bullet of screen scanning, that, it'll consume about, a, hundred. A, hundred and ten milliamps, per hours, more than, the regular scenario, so. This is a kind of app hell's that when we you're new to an application, is in a war zone that it will continually, scanning for Bluetooth but, when you are outside the war zone there's no need to I, mean. Keep. Using. The Bluetooth to scan for where. Are the beacons because you are not within the, geofence, area and this, will allow us to save. Energy and a phone and even though that people hug you all if you are put in their phone in a car often time you have it plug, in power may not be an issues but, anyways just kind of a way, that to to measure how the power consumption, with. The Bluetooth scanning. Okay. So. We. Have. This. Carry, 11 News reported, on this this, project, last, years and this is the videos, that they they put up and using.

This Air for alerting. The walk song in this application, and. The. The. Link is at. The bottom here and it's, about three. Three. And a half minutes, so basically what if we told you there was a way to fight distracted, driving using, what can be a major distraction while. Driving sound. Confusing its actually an idea developed, at the University of Minnesota in partnership, with MnDOT, it, is part of our continuing, izip campaign, Carol. Evans Kennard all shows us how, it worked. In. Its never-ending effort, to make work zones safe. MnDOT. Has hit a roadblock number, one. Within. Work zones is distracted. Driving and, since no amount of orange cones can catch your eye if you're not looking up they're. Now taking the fight to the phone we feel that there's if we can get something. Inside the cab of the vehicle that that's gonna make a difference the, U of M Center for Transportation studies developed, an app that will pair directly, with pack in construction. Zones, it is, researcher. Chen foo Leon says construction, workers can use this beacon to send messages to drivers, as they approach. Unlike. The Bluetooth devices were used for connecting to on our phones these construction. Beacons have a much more powerful signal. Meaning. Drivers, can pick them up on their phones from, up to 500, feet away once, it detects it that people broadcast. That message, we hit the road to demo the app and, after, a year of development, and testing. We. Can tell you it definitely were, verbally. And visually alerting. Us to that rough road just, before we. Hit it that's a really simple message yep it is a simple message the best thing is to bring the message to to, it a vehicle, but, if you believe a phone app sounds like the worst way to try to eliminate phone distractions. It's, okay, to be skeptical, right, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Nicole Morris studies driver distraction and, tested, the app inside, of the U of M's human, first lab. Her. Team tracked and analyzed, the eye movements. And responses, of a hundred different drivers, as they navigated, several, simulated, construction, zone. We compared, the methods, coming through the smartphone through, a portable, changeable message signs those. Portable signs have become a common sight along, many roads, but. After road tests in here researchers. Are looking at them differently, they spent much I'm looking, at that sign away from the road than they did for, the smartphone. And. They, remembered, it much better if they received it on the phone, compared, to reading it on the sign which is really critical, but this app was less distracting. Than a sign right. Absolutely, it was less visually, distracting and, we thought had less mental workload on, the drivers and, for drivers who try to multitask, the technology, is even more beneficial, it is designed, to to, interrupt, whatever your, current, activity, is so, if you're not paying attention and you're on your phone it'll interrupt, you yes exactly, you. Might call it a distraction, distractions. But, MnDOT calls it promise, if we can get P messages inside. The vehicle, to. Get people to pay a little bit more attention that. Can only help can. Turn up here, 11 News. Well. Now that it passed initial, trials, men dot in the U of M or look okay. So you get ideas and, then so um I will a final. Few slide that will kind of a summarize so, the benefit of this that it will be running as a background so you don't you do not need to I mean to constantly. Interact, with this as you are driving and then, you provide a more dynamic walk zone information as, you are traveling along the walk zone obviously, that will require more responsible. Responsibility. From the contractor, or Watson walkers to update, information as, they are moving. Changing, the layout of the geometry, of the walk zone however, certainly, you will provide a more timely. Information to. To. The motorists and these. Will I mean basically, based, on the human factor result. That we'll, be able to design. And provide appropriate a. Message, that for, for. The, drivers. As they approaching work zones and. Eventually. That this. Could be integrated with the 5-11, mean that that currently has the 5-11, apps that allow, providing, work zone and navigation. Information to, to, the. General public and, also that, some people, may argue well, we do not want people to use form but again the smartphone it's a it's a vehicle to. Provide this type of, communication. Eventually. It may be embedded, into the vehicles infotainment. System, and that it, was skin for information. Directly. So. Just. To mention, that some. Limitations. Line-of-sight, that obviously, the Bluetooth, wireless, communication.

It's A line-of-sight technology, even though that I mean we when we place the smartphone. In, the. Cupholder area. It's out of the way but eventually. When, you have lots of trucks that going on it might create some latency, issues or not, detecting, the Bluetooth devices and, we. Would prefer that the Bluetooth beacon place at about above the ground to easier for, the general traffic, and the smartphone to detects it and so, we're going to do next is that we, would like to do. A more systematic. Test that by deploying this multiple. This all of this at the walk song and real walks on for a longer. Period of time and using different, vehicles and to testing, the performance of this device and, also, that we, want to implement the. Feedbacks, and results from the human factor studies, and to implement appropriate, messages. That for, a different walks on scenario, and then. To evaluate, eventually. You want to see how the system works and how reliable are there's in different traffic conditions, so. It's all summarized that we basically that you use the Bluetooth technology, to. Develop. A vehicle. Message, system. That allows the smartphone, in the vehicle to receive those information. A geospatial. Database is set up that for testing purposes, purposes, that each infinitive. Beacon is associated. With whatever message, that is programmed, by the. Traffic engineers, and a. Continuous. Scan of the blue is only needed when you are entering the geofence walk zone to saved the power consumption. On the, smartphone device and. We. Also had another. Applications. For engineers, that in case that they need to update information, or, make changes that make, it easier because open time nowadays. That all the workers they have either smartphone. From their work or. Personally. Owned that they can use that to make changes, at the field without waiting. Until, they enter return back to the office and to make those changes and our. Results indicated, that even though at highway speed, up to 70 miles per hours that our system, will be able to pick up the the Bluetooth, signal.

And Provided in vehicle message to the. Motorists and, the. Future effort will focus on validation, of the system and. How. Reliable, is this in different traffic condition, and some. Of the discussion, point I think we can open up for discussion here, and basically, they. Are already, crowdsourcing. Applications. Like Waze and many other, applications, that pick up or provide, walks on informations, or incidence, things like that however, those information, are not always reliable, because I mean I don't know how many of you used. Waste, before that it tells you that what this incident, or accident but. Sometimes that it was not updated and as you travel through there's nothing there or. Different. Situation. Things like that and, basically, there's no quality information. Quality check for this type of application using. Crowdsourcing, here. And which. May cause additional distraction. Because I mean the. Cross sourcing source, tells you that something. Going on upcoming but, you paying attention to that but not to your driving task for. Rural application, there's some discussion about what in rural applications. How. Is this going to work if you do not have cell, coverage and, obviously. That the. Database. Information could, be downloaded. In. Advance within, the southern region on a form so you don't need the. Celtic connection, all the time to, receive. The. Information, from the database and, a. Cloud-based solutions. That allowed us that to. Manage. The information centrally. And update those information. In. A central location. Geofencing. Zwarst a beacon, there's, also discussion about, well why do you need a beacon, why. Can you just use geofence, here and so. The. The area, that with without, a GPS or this area that I mean in the geofence, area that. If. You lose your the, lucy, or the a coverage, that, a beacon is still there and so the phone will be still be able to the skin and pick up the pick up the beacon and pick up the information. So. Anyway, with, that I think I will conclude then, but I'd like to acknowledge that, the, support from. Minnesota. BLT and particularly Ken Johnson and, his, staff. Members and, am. Enrolled at Jack Hinton and also the Minda, engineers that helping us allowing us still to do. Some experiment, in the real world song environment, and also, students. That working previously, on this project son, beep who's. Already graduated. And now working I, think it's working and in. The industry right now and I so want to mention that human first and Minnesota. Traffic Observatory and Robo safety and Center for Transportation study for supporting. This work, with. That I will conclude they now open for any questions that, you might have. Oh the. First night at least knowledge about anything. So in our approach here that we use the smartphone so basically it is using, the the Bluetooth and a smartphone devices but, nowadays modern cars that it all has the Bluetooth, capability, remember, that as you enter a vehicle. That you can pair your Bluetooth devices, with fewer with, your car's the audio. System basically. You can play the. Sounds, music, from, the, audio system in vehicle, and also when you reset when it's paired that in when you when, you receive incoming. Call making calls you basically it's, hands-free, you don't need to worry about the phone so, all the modern cars that it has the Bluetooth capability. However, it may not have all those functions that we have because. And that's why we use the smart phone that allowed, us to do all kinds of testing, without, dealing. With the. Carved, the, the electronic. And the software, inside the vehicle eventually. Could be all. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean I don't, know I don't have a good. Number but I can, see a ton army my vehicles, my oldest vehicle, it's about sixty, years old and so. I typically. I mean the the turnover, of the the. Vehicle in the States at least 10 years so. I just kind of roughly guesstimate. I would say Bobby, I mean sixty.

Percent Of the vehicles has, the Bluetooth capability. And I. Can imagine that even though the, basic basic, model of a vehicle, the. Audio system I think it still has I mean the, boost technology so. I don't know I don't have a good number but I think that just a guesstimate, maybe around fifty sixty percent of the vehicle and. There a lot of grandpa. Antique. Vehicles. Well. As I mentioned earlier about DSRC. And you know that the private industry or the, the, phone, industry, they want to purchase the bandwidth from the. Gate dedicated, short range. Communication. The DSRC bandwidth, so. The, with the 5g, and recently. There's a development, with the LTE that, allows peer-to-peer. Communication. So, with the smartphone here that currently when you want to communicate with someone it, has to go through a cell tower and then. To that I mean to a party. On the other side but, with that the technology, that you will allows, peer-to-peer, communication. Even, though I mean right now if I want to make a phone call to you it'll go through the cell tower then back to you but, with the 5g and appear peer-to-peer, capability. That will allow the phone to form, communication. Immediately. And with. That that basically opens up a big, array. Of applications for. A communication. Between devices, and, also from vehicles. To infrastructures. And that's, the the DSRC the connected, vehicle ideas, allows vehicle. To vehicle communicate. Directly or vehicle to infrastructure, so, with Phi G I can see that it's, going to be faster, much, wider bandwidth, it even, provides more opportunity. For I. Mean. Developing, the safety applications, like this so, I see I mean a great future for using the 5g, it's going to be faster, and better, but. Certainly, there's a some limitation, about I mean I mean the bandwidth and for a. Safety. Critical type, of application, you can now wait just like your text for four minutes to get your text right you need it right away you need to make sure that information is, received right away so these are some time in the quality, of service and priority, issues that in the, bandwidth that needs to be lay. Out and identify. Part. Of the contract, that part, of the contract, is must. Put. These, beacons. Up there to drivers, but. What about if, you go in the city there, are lots of construction sites where they close up streets and for. Example there's one right here by Harvard, and Washington. That's, had, a construction, site closing, up half the street for a year or two and, you can use Waze and it doesn't know, that that work zone exists, so. Who is going to push the construction, company, sort of building skyscrapers, or. Whatever they're doing to make sure that they transmit, the. Sure. I think the answer is it's, kind of to. Two sides obviously, the, the public agency is not going to invest, the money putting, all this in there but nobody use it I think we have the similar discussion, for connected, vehicle it's, kind of chicken and eggs do we put the infrastructure, equipped, with all this technology, first, or do, we let everybody or the vehicle equipped with all this technology, first. But, no use of it because the infrastructure, does not talk to you you can talk to car the copper not to defect to the infrastructure, so, I see, that the Bluetooth the advantage, of using bluetooth, is I can. Assume I mean I can I can guess. That every one of us here in this room had has some sort of Bluetooth devices either, on our hand or on our wrist or things like that so my, vision that eventually, all the, products device is going to be smart okay small. Eyeball we have small eyeball that allow you using your Bluetooth through your smartphone to, control the time when it turns on turns off the, demoness, the brightness things like that so, eventually all the devices that we use is going to be using, with we can embed it with the small Bluetooth devices it's going to be cheap.

Okay, And it, could be disposable, and so, you're asking about who is going to push him for that well I think it's from both direction, if there's a need and the consumers, the taxpayers, that they see the, important of this and if. The. Manufacturer, sees the market of this they're, going to put all these blue tools in every of this device the barricade, or the combs things like that it's becoming a standard, product of that then you can take advantage of advantage, of that but I see the train is that everything, is going to be smart with some. Sort of I mean, intelligence, in a device that, with Bluetooth the low cost of the devices, make it much, easier as you're trying to develop a much wider coverage. As, compared, to DSR see that I mean it will cost I mean many. Many millions of dollars that do instrument, DSRC in, our way. Yes yeah, out. Of the country. There. Are rolling work zones, they're. Called combines, mm-hmm. And I. Believe, it was the state of Iowa back in the 90s put, in place a law that said that all the late. Model combines, and large, tractors, had. To be outfitted, with a. Basically. A radar, generator. That. Would pick up on a radar detector so. That you could be informed, I'm, wondering if that is in a vehicle for actually creating you. Know your mobile broadcaster. For the, Bluetooth. Signal, seem, as though that is the source of a. Yeah. I think I mean for mobile walk zone if that's the case that you mentioned that I mean moving, works on mobile walks on and often time there's lots of the intrusion, of people trying to cut through or they want to get, around things like that, yeah. Yeah I mean paint, trucks as well so, that will allow some in the the, the I mean you can determine either using I mean radar, or instrument the Bluetooth devices that, assuming that the vehicle has those devices as, the lab, or the applications, that to receive, those information. And I. Think that's I mean certainly I mean a great. Application, for that we can I mean install, the beacons a permanent. Beacons and I mean on every truck of construction, truck or snow plower snow. Plow and also, I mean other maintenance, vehicles, that -, I mean provided, alerting. Warning information for those. Utility. Vehicles. I'm. Wondering is there some way, that there's, kind of a universal platform, so, I don't have to download something. That picks up the ble tag for, like. A low. Bridge clearance, and something, for work zones and something, for toll booths you know like is, there something that we could get into some. Database. So that I can I. I I would, think so cuz this will be beneficial because I remember, that I used to I mean drive to work and I parked off street, cuz I didn't I have I mean. Contract and so, in wintertime. Like this you need to be aware when, is the small snow emergency, routes it's, often time I have to call 3-1-1, and, to see to listen and to see where which Rob which site you are even sidle off-site things like that so, a public service like said in Minneapolis, that I mean, you can get those updates through, a central. Channel so you know your snow information. You know the traffic information work song information update, through, a central channel by offering this as a kind of public, services, and that, residents. Or users they'll be able to receive that and on, the same line is that for, people that, with. I mean I mean because I did other project, with visually, impaired that they want to receive information about, that's a walk zone or geometry on the sidewalk closure things like that so through a public, services, channel, that they, will be able to get whatever. Daily, updates, or at midnight that it was updated. Through or push through your a, public. Services, channel and allows the users that who subscribed to it has the latest information. Each morning, things like that so I think that that this opportunity to push through this but it will require the.

Maybe. The the public agencies, that to kind of pull this together and initially. I think it this will has to be built kind of I mean step by step obviously, not, all the people is going to be on board at the same time and so, when people see, the benefit, and opportunity, people, be willing to to join in particularly, the public agencies, that they usually are, operating. At. Sure. Yeah. 22nd. Two weeks from today, same, time same place. Professor. Gary Davis, I will, be talking about estimating, driver's behaviors, from, event data recorder. Date and. Then from. Event data recorder, data, anyway. Anyway. Please. Come, again two, weeks from today same time same place and. I'm. Sure will be informative, and, Gary Davis will have lots, to present thank you very much for coming. Yeah. Hey. I know I white and I know when I prove, that one. Thank. You.

2018-03-10 17:55

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