With funding from the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), QWIP Technologies, of Edmonton, and its subsidiary, InTransTech, are field testing an infrared camera system for alerting motorists that an animal is wandering on the road ahead.
The prototype system is being installed this month in British Columbia's rugged Kootney Mountain area, with production and installation scheduled for 2003.
The animal detection system is based on QWIP's infrared sensor technology and works in concert with digital roadside warning signs designed by InTransTech.
If an animal is detected, the camera's photo-sensors will relay the data to the 4-by-8 foot road signs, which will immediately display the animal alert for oncoming traffic. The signs will also identify the kind of animal the drivers are approaching.
The infrared cameras are housed in trailers and scan the area for "heat signatures." QWIP says its sensors can see through darkness, smoke, snow, fog and rain and that they are "sensitive enough to differentiate between the types of animals wandering near or on the roadway."
According the ICBC, British Columbia drivers last year reported more than 9,000 accidents involving wildlife. Deer were the leading cause of crashes, but more serious accidents involved moose.
The solution isn't cheap: each camera system costs about $50,000. But officials involved in the field test say that the cameras can scan several miles of straight highway. Fencing just one kilometer, in comparison, would cost between $40,000 and $80,000.
Future applications, according to ICBC, include using the system to detect debris and rock falls as well as to monitor road-surface conditions.
ICBC says that tests show the system can determine whether a road is icy or dry. The next step would be to link the system to the appropriate road maintenance departments and to the province's travel advisory system "to warn travelers about road hazards on certain stretches of highway."
QWIP produces infrared photo detectors imaging via its line of QWIP CHIPs. The technology was originally developed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Applications for the chips include missile seeking and detection, mine detection, surveillance, security and medical imaging.
NASA photo