Japanese Public Broadcasting Corporation Films UCSD Lab

(as translated from the Japanese by Doug Ramsey, UCSD)

Recently, the American government issued a report saying that, in the 21st century, American centers must lead the world in research. On the Internet, you can obtain just about any information easily. Already, this new knowledge gained has led the government to begin many new projects.

One of those is a project to address traffic congestion. Today, American cities are in critical need of fixing severe traffic problems. In terms of economic damage, every year billions of yen (dollars) are lost. One solution might be to operate cameras across America in a system established to keep track of millions of cars and congestion.

Until now, there was no way to address the currrent circumstances. This new project could lead to a lessening of pollution--something that is forgotten when traffic jams are discussed.

Government officials disagree about what to do about highways. Perhaps the occurrence of congestion would be resolved by being able to track all cars on the road closely.

The camera tracks the first vehicle and follows where it is going. The second car may be going at a different speed or direction. By having access to real-time information on traffic volume, you can relieve the problem of congestion.

Says Trivedi, "Until now, computers have been unable to give us the complete data or they were too slow. Now, with these instruments connected to the cars, we can keep more concrete track of the traffic. Many computers now have the power and the memory to begin processing enormous amount of data in an instant, and it's becoming feasible to keep track of even the smallest bit of information."