Researchers have subjected volunteers to the sounds of cockerels, bells, babies crying and footsteps to find out how people perceive urgency and pleasantness.
The two-year EPSRC-funded project aims to find the most appropriate sounds – such as those of screeching tyres or car horns – to warn drivers of hazards on the road.
Researchers from the school of psychology are helping car manufacturers come up with the best ‘audible icons’ to convey alerts to drivers by discovering the appr
NRC/CRF laser-based technique for measuring “real world”emissions seen as key to validating federal vehicle compliance procedures
Using a unique laser-based, soot heating technique, a team led by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories’ Combustion Research Facility (CRF) has demonstrated the ability to measure “real world” particulate emissions from a vehicle under actual driving conditions.
While on-board measurements of gaseous emissions are routine, real-time par
A contract for the construction and supply of cutting edge neutron scanning technology was today signed by the CEOs of Customs and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
Customs and the CSIRO have been working together to develop the scanner that has the ability to detect explosives, drugs and other prohibited imports in air cargo more effectively than existing x-ray systems.
Customs CEO, Lionel Woodward said: “This technology is one of the measure
This automatic system for transport, developed under the auspices of the European Assap-one project, is a solution that enables a port container terminal to expand by means of a specific rail link to an internal or peripheral terminal (inland container terminal).
The system consists of a fleet of automatic vehicles for which IKERLAN has developed traffic system controllers that resolve the automation of the transport of containers between the two terminals in real time, thus reducing the num
The buildup of ice on airplanes in flight is a major winter hazard for small and commuter planes. But scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., are testing a new system this month that may pinpoint water droplets in clouds that cause icing, potentially enabling pilots to avoid dangerous areas.
The system, known as S-Polka, combines two existing radars that use different wavelengths. By studying the differences between the images that are reflected
Colas, the leading road construction and maintenance group, and its subsidiary, Somaro, a specialist in safety equipment and road signs and signals, in partnership with the Ecole Polytechnique, have developed a new type of noise barrier for roads with an unequalled level of sound absorption. Depending on the configuration, the barrier’s performance is 30% to 50% greater than that of the most effective sound panels currently available on the market.
This innovative product, for which a paten
Auto congestion and pollution is an ongoing dilemma for Europe’s cities, but small electric automated CyberCars that run on the existing urban infrastructure promise to make Europe’s crowded capitals cleaner, safer, and easier to manoeuvre.
The development and adoption of vehicles running autonomously without a driver on city streets at low speed (up to 30 km/h at the moment), while avoiding fixed and mobile obstacles, is the goal of IST-project CYBERCAR. This concept of using aut
Assuaging concerns about guaranteeing current and future tunnel safety is IST project SIRTAKI, which is developing a system to provide enhanced security for any road, rail or metro network.
Last year the first prototype of the SIRTAKI advanced tunnel management and decision support system (DSS) was completed, and trials are now beginning in the Paris metro network and in three road tunnels in Italy and Spain. These are expected to validate its potential to drastically improve the safety of
Taking up the work of the SPARTACUS project, PROPOLIS aims to investigate and develop integrated policies for land use and transport with tools and methods of evaluation in order to define strategies for long-term urban sustainability from a triple perspective: environmental, social and economic. For each of these dimensions a series of indicators are drawn up which enables the measurement of the level of sustainability of the different policy options involving these perspectives.
To analy
It looks like a cross between a Hummer and a tank.
But the squat, pug-nosed car with brown body panels in place of its windshield and windows is radically different from any vehicle on today’s roads or battlefields. Designed, built and outfitted by the University of Florida and a Utah company called Autonomous Solutions, it is a robot car built for one purpose: to compete against other “autonomous” vehicles in a U.S. defense agency-sponsored race this spring from Los Angeles to L
Late arriving passengers are an never-ending headache for airports, but IST-project ADAMANT will trial a wireless network at this year’s Summer Olympic Games in Athens that uses smart antenna technology to get passengers to their gates on time.
The airport network under development – a hybrid 2.5G system that incorporates a blend of GSM and 3G standards – is comprised of two components: the technology for the wireless networks, and the passenger and staff support system. Project manager La
At sea, when you approach land? Tellmaris’ prototype system provides up-to-date 3D information to orient sailors as and when they dock.
Two years after initial market research and interviews with over 800 pleasure boat users, the IST-funded TellMaris team (consisting of firms and research institutes from Norway, Finland, Germany and Greece) has developed three prototypes for areas of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. Sailors and leisure boat tourists were chosen as the test sam
Open telematic platforms offer the possibility of integrating Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) components by allowing service providers and equipment manufacturers to test, upgrade or demonstrate their products, services, equipment and standards free of charge. SMITH provides such a platform helping to guarantee that adopted solutions comply with existing and emerging European standards.
Testbed contributes to ITS standards
The quality manager of the IST programme funded
At 2.5 tons and 9 feet high, the truck that Ohio State University engineers are about to race across the Mojave Desert could literally crush the competition.
And it would do so without a driver.
Of course, the truck won’t be squashing its rivals — the purpose of the competition is to design vehicles that can drive autonomously and avoid obstacles, rather than run them over.
With no human intervention and only global positioning system and local sensing data to guid
The fog today is hanging heavy on the Yangtze River making conditions for navigation rather difficult, however one ferry goes forward with no special worries. The captain is using the highly accurate satellite navigation system, EGNOS.
The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) is an initiative of the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Commission and Eurocontrol.
This boat trip is the first trial testing satellite navigation with EGNOS in China and is the first
A breakthrough broadcast technology designed to deliver Traffic and Travel Information (TTI) has been tested and validated by the TPEG project. Project partners have further developed a new and open international standard for broadcasting language independent multimodal TTI to be distributed over a wide range of digital media.
Use of TPEG industry-wide will allow the development of powerful systems to manage and display travel news. In addition, developers will be able to create systems and
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