Syllabus: GS3/ S&T
In News
- To combat speeding vehicles, traffic police across India have increasingly adopted speed guns as a crucial enforcement tool to ensure road safety.
About Speed Gun
- Definition: Devices used to measure the speed of moving objects without contact, commonly used by traffic police to enforce speed limits.
- Working:
- Doppler effect: They rely on the change in frequency of waves (usually radio waves) reflected off a moving vehicle.
- Higher frequency = approaching: If the vehicle is moving towards the gun, the frequency of the reflected waves increases.
- Lower frequency = moving away: If the vehicle is moving away, the frequency decreases.
- Speed Calculation: The gun calculates the speed based on this frequency difference.
Limitations
- Beam Divergence: Radio waves can spread out, potentially measuring the speed of multiple vehicles simultaneously, leading to inaccurate readings.
- Interference: Continuous-wave radar can be affected by reflections from multiple vehicles or other objects, causing errors.
- Cost: Advanced systems are needed to compensate for these limitations, making them more expensive.
Transition to LIDAR Speed Guns
- LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging): Uses laser light instead of radio waves for better targeting and accuracy.
- Advantages: Minimal beam divergence ensures precise measurements.
- Superior performance in high-traffic environments.
Source: TH
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