Accident Detection and Notification using Internet Of Things

The Internet of Things is a new concept which aims to usher in a new era of connected devices which contribute to better human life.

Imagine that you are walking into a department store and your mobile gives you a notification about the contents of your refrigerator and what you might need based on your previous purchase habits. This is an example of a connected reality which can be brought in by the Internet Of Things in which your refrigerator is connected to the internet and it can actually tell you its contents. Internet of things aims to embed intelligence in these ‘dumb’ devices.

In short Internet of Things is the interconnection of things to gather data, get information from the data and make informed and intelligent decisions based on that knowledge.

One such application that I’m going to focus on and have actually implemented is the use of Internet of Things to detect and report accidents in two wheelers.

The accident detection and reporting system has the following objectives,

We shall start with the Accident Detection phase. To detect an accident, the acceleration values of the two-wheeler need to be compared. An accident is said to have occurred when,

Consider you are travelling in a two-wheeler at a constant speed. The acceleration values will be more or less constant with very little fluctuation.

An accident occurs when the two-wheeler experiences enough change in acceleration which is enough to trigger the sensor. For example, when the two-wheeler is travelling in a straight line at around say 40kmph and another vehicle travelling at 80 kmph hits it, the two-wheeler experiences a sudden change in acceleration and speed.

Newton’s Laws prevail over here and the two-wheeler has the speed and acceleration of the vehicle in an instant, i.e. the two-wheeler is also now travelling at >40 kmph in an instant.

The graph of the acceleration values is no longer straight when the two-wheeler was travelling at a constant speed of 40kmph but rather a spike is seen in the graph. This is enough to signify that an accident has taken place.

This does not give enough reason to prove an accident you say? Let me elaborate further on this.

Take this picture of a MotoGP rider in a curve,

If you and I were to try this on a road going two-wheeler, this is what's going to happen to us,

Likewise most road going two-wheelers have a limited lean angle with the road. Here’s a picture to illustrate,

It is also possible to check the lean angle of the two-wheeler to see if it has crossed a threshold angle beyond which the rider kisses the dirt.

Combining this with the above knowledge of what actually happens in an accident, it is possible to accurately detect an accident.

Next, we need to send a notification to the emergency department to notify it that an accident has taken place. The helmet has to send a notification to the server which in turn forwards the request to the emergency department.

Help arrives and the rider need not have to depend on a good samaritan to notify the emergency department.

How can this help to prevent future accidents? Read on.

Read this joke that I have heard and which inspired me…

The data from the accidents over time can give an insight into when and where the accidents occur in an area. Over time, we can identify accident hotspots and take preventive measures to prevent accidents by redesigning the roads and intersections.

If it is not possible to take preventive measures, then the emergency department can place ambulances near the accident hot spots for immediate help.

The Internet of Things is rising up fast and has the potential to change the human way of life as we know it. It will bring up the revolution required to usher in technology into every aspect, nook and cranny of our everyday life.

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