Technology
Microsoft's 'HAMS' automates driver license tests in India
New Delhi, Oct 30
Microsoft Research has developed a smartphone-based driving test system that leverages the power of Artificial Intelligence to make a fair analysis of a driver's ability before issuing him or her a license.
The system has already been deployed at Dehradun Regional Transport Office (RTO) in Uttarakhand and is ready for wider adoption across the country and beyond, Microsoft said on Wednesday.
The technology that Microsoft developed to automate driver's license tests is called HAMS, which is short for Harnessing AutoMobiles for Safety.
"The main challenge in the traditional driver's license test is the burden placed on the human evaluators and the resulting subjectivity that a candidate faces," Venkat Padmanabhan, Deputy Managing Director, Microsoft Research India, who started the HAMS project in 2016, said in a statement.
"Automation using HAMS technology can not only help relieve evaluators of the burden but also make the process objective and transparent for candidates," Padmanabhan said.
Driver license testing is a pressing problem. For instance, a survey by SaveLIFE Foundation in India reported that a whopping 59 per cent of the respondents did not give a test to obtain a driving license.
HAMS, in its general incarnation, uses the smartphone's front and rear cameras, and other sensors, to monitor the driver (for instance, their gaze) and the road scene in front (for instance, the distance to the vehicle in front), simultaneously.
It employs advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) models, which the team has developed for efficient and robust operation.
For driving tests, HAMS has been customized to include capabilities such as precise tracking of the vehicle's trajectory during designated test manoeuvres, for instance, parallel parking or negotiating a roundabout.
This tracking enables HAMS to determine precisely, for instance, whether the driver stopped in the middle of a manoeuvre for longer than is permitted or tried to course correct by rolling forward and backward alternately more times than allowed.
Today, if you take the driver's license test at the Dehradun RTO, you will be doing so in just the company of a smartphone affixed to your car's windshield.
HAMS, running on the smartphone and on an edge server onsite at the testing track, will do the rest and produce a detailed report shortly after you finish navigating through the test manoeuvres.
"On an average, over 50 candidates take the HAMS-enabled automated license test every day at the Dehradun RTO. Due to the comprehensive nature of testing, just about 50 percent candidates pass the test, ensuring that only qualified drivers are given a driver's license," Akshay Nambi, Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research India.
The system has already been deployed at Dehradun Regional Transport Office (RTO) in Uttarakhand and is ready for wider adoption across the country and beyond, Microsoft said on Wednesday.
The technology that Microsoft developed to automate driver's license tests is called HAMS, which is short for Harnessing AutoMobiles for Safety.
"The main challenge in the traditional driver's license test is the burden placed on the human evaluators and the resulting subjectivity that a candidate faces," Venkat Padmanabhan, Deputy Managing Director, Microsoft Research India, who started the HAMS project in 2016, said in a statement.
"Automation using HAMS technology can not only help relieve evaluators of the burden but also make the process objective and transparent for candidates," Padmanabhan said.
Driver license testing is a pressing problem. For instance, a survey by SaveLIFE Foundation in India reported that a whopping 59 per cent of the respondents did not give a test to obtain a driving license.
HAMS, in its general incarnation, uses the smartphone's front and rear cameras, and other sensors, to monitor the driver (for instance, their gaze) and the road scene in front (for instance, the distance to the vehicle in front), simultaneously.
It employs advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) models, which the team has developed for efficient and robust operation.
For driving tests, HAMS has been customized to include capabilities such as precise tracking of the vehicle's trajectory during designated test manoeuvres, for instance, parallel parking or negotiating a roundabout.
This tracking enables HAMS to determine precisely, for instance, whether the driver stopped in the middle of a manoeuvre for longer than is permitted or tried to course correct by rolling forward and backward alternately more times than allowed.
Today, if you take the driver's license test at the Dehradun RTO, you will be doing so in just the company of a smartphone affixed to your car's windshield.
HAMS, running on the smartphone and on an edge server onsite at the testing track, will do the rest and produce a detailed report shortly after you finish navigating through the test manoeuvres.
"On an average, over 50 candidates take the HAMS-enabled automated license test every day at the Dehradun RTO. Due to the comprehensive nature of testing, just about 50 percent candidates pass the test, ensuring that only qualified drivers are given a driver's license," Akshay Nambi, Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research India.
58 seconds ago
Why the BJP in UP is confident in the midst of elections
1 minute ago
Several multimillionaires in the fray in Andhra Pradesh
2 minutes ago
Sex scandal: Prajwal Revanna to arrive on May 15 amid political slugfest; his ex-driver goes missing
3 minutes ago
2,500-year-old 'yagya kund' found during excavation in Rajasthan's Braj region
4 minutes ago
Omar Abdullah files nomination for J&K's Baramulla LS seat
5 minutes ago
Congress partnership with Pakistan exposed, says PM Modi
6 minutes ago
Excise policy case: Manish Sisodia moves Delhi HC against trial court order denying bail
7 minutes ago
J&K: One killed, 11 injured in Jammu-Srinagar highway accident
8 minutes ago
Repolling underway in one polling booth in Ajmer LS seat
9 minutes ago
BSP announces six more candidates in UP
10 minutes ago
LU allows students to change stream after passing entrance test
12 minutes ago
Girish Mathrubootham steps down as Freshworks CEO, to spend more time in India
14 minutes ago
Meta adds new ways to organise events in WhatsApp Communities