Trio's road crash avoider device

Three Bangladeshi youths have come up with a new technology named Advanced Driver Assistant and Monitoring System (ADAMS-Kit) which will help drivers avoid road accidents.

The Artificial Intelligence-based tiny device is invented by Abu Anas Ibne Samad, Siam Hossain and Sushanta Roy.

The trio has come up with the idea when road accidents have become an 'epidemic' in the country. At least 3,080 people were killed and 7,918 others injured in 2,717 accidents across the country in the last 11 months till 30 November, according to a survey and observation report of a non-government organisation, the National Committee to Protect Shipping, Roads and Railways (NCPSRR).

The ADAMS Kit's Artificial Intelligence (AI) is capable of categorically detecting things that come before it and provide signal to the drivers.

Talking to the Prothom Alo at its Karwan Bazar office on 22 January, Sigmind Group director Abu Anas Ibne Samad said, "It will play an important role to check road accidents. It will also work like a driver's assistant who usually directs the driver while the latter is driving."

Assistant director of the group Siam Hossain told Prothom Alo that the device is attachable on a vehicle's front glass or on the dashboard. "It will alert the diver during lane change and overtaking," he added.

A video, which was filmed on its experimental running, shows the device can detect vehicles and humans in front of it separately and can display images on its small screen.

Sales official of the company, Sushanta Roy, said the device can make the driver aware of any danger 20 metres ahead. It will also caution the driver if any person attempts risky crossing.

They said the device will film the vehicle's movement and preserve the information in the Global Position System (GPS) and the vehicle's Accelerator Metre.

Siam, who is hopeful of versatile use of the device, said, "The authorities concerned do not care about the skill of a driver once s/he get the driving licence. Now, the authorities can check the driver's skill through this device as well."

Samad is a former student of mechanical engineering department, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) while Siam is now studying at the same department. Sushanta is a psychology department student at Dhaka University.

The device was launched on 27 December in 2016.

* This report, originally published in Prothom Alo Bangla print, was rewritten in English by Toriqul Islam.