A smartphone-based road signs alert system for vehicle drivers’ assistance in Tanzania

Abstract

Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) are major problems worldwide resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are one of the salient features of intelligent systems in transportation. ADAS improves vehicle safety by providing real-time traffic information on road signs ahead. Road signs play an important role in road safety. To be effective, road signs must be visible at a distance that enables drivers to take the necessary actions. Static road signs, however, are often seen too late for a driver to respond accordingly. In this study, a system for alerting drivers about road signs has been developed and tested using a smart mobile phone. The study was conducted in Tanzania along an 80 km stretch of Arusha to Moshi highway. The haversine method was used precisely for the measure and estimation of the distance between two pairs of coordinates. It uses an existing supported phone-based navigation application, Google Map. The system provides a speech alert to a needed action which enhances attention diversion. According to the experimental results, the proposed methodology has the benefits of high accuracy within a user radius of 10 meters, minimum bandwidth, and low-cost system. Furthermore, the system application package SHA-1 signing certificates fingerprint is secured by limiting access to API key to avoid unauthorized access to sensitive information.