The number of motor and tuning enthusiasts has increased sharply in recent years. Illegal street races take place regularly in the larger cities, which on the one hand are extremely dangerous for other road users and on the other hand are very disturbing due to the noise emissions. Various modifications to the engine and exhaust system produce extremely loud bangs that can be heard from afar and are an enormous nuisance for local residents. Most affected in Austria is the province of Carinthia, where every year thousands of motor and tuning enthusiasts populate the province. For the police it becomes more and more difficult during this time to maintain public safety and order and to protect the local residents. On the one hand, this protection concerns the defense against acts of vandalism as well as the prevention of dangerous situations in road traffic. However, the police can provide less and less peace and quiet, because they currently lack the technical possibilities to punish the offenses of the tuners by means of suitable measuring devices, in that the offense can also be assigned to the corresponding driver or vehicle. Due to the large number of vehicles and the confusing nature of the situation, it is usually not possible to make a clear, court-proof assignment. Currently, there is no measuring device that meets the requirements of the police and provides court-proof evidence for the violations of tuners during car events. The aim of this project proposal is to develop and test a multisensory measuring device that will allow the police to secure court-proof evidence in the course of tuning events in future. This mobile measuring device consists of a combination of acoustic sensor technology, visual and thermal sensor technology and a distance sensor. The acoustic sensor technology consists of a commercially available calibrated sound level meter and a microphone array. The local assignment of noise emission to a vehicle shall be done with a microphone array, a visual camera and a thermal camera. The distance between the sound level meter and the noise source in question is to be measured using a conventional laser gun. The knowledge of the distance is necessary for the sound propagation calculation, because the actual sound pressure level at the vehicle can always only be related to a certain distance to the sensor and its measured level.
Within the project, the individual sensors shall be integrated into a system in order to allow tests and demonstrations in real time. The designed system should be mobile, so that the sensors can be easily and quickly installed and operated by police officers on site. The measurement results will be transmitted in real time to a police stop squad positioned in the direction of travel on a tablet/mobile phone, so that they can confront the drivers concerned with the objective measurement results or evidence and initiate further measures (e.g. removal of license plates).
Project leader:
JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsgesellschaft mbH
Project partners:
AMT DER KÄRNTNER LANDESREGIERUNG, Abteilung 7 –
Wirtschaft, Tourismus und Mobilität, A07 Verkehrsrecht und Verkehrsunternehmen
Lakeside Labs GmbH
Hottinger Brüel & Kjaer Austria GmbH
Schuster + Schuster Traffic Infrastructure Consulting GmbH
Bundesministerium für Inneres
Contact
Dr. Ferdinand Fuhrmann
Leonhardstraße 59, 8010 Graz
+433168761309
www.joanneum.at