NCJ Number
204545
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 52 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2004 Pages: 26,28
Date Published
January 2004
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This article discusses developing a standard for integration of patrol car electronics.
Abstract
There is no clear standard in the patrol car electronics market, therefore no interior of patrol cars in different jurisdictions looks alike. The inner workings of these devices reveal even more dissimilarities. Project54, an initiative under way at the University of New Hampshire, aims to resolve some of these problems by developing a standard for integration of patrol car electronics. Devices brought under the Project54 umbrella could share wiring, power supplies, and user interfaces, so that they could take up less room and be more ergonomically sound for officers to use. The technologies developed by Project54 have already produced a patrol car with electronics that operate reliably and consistently by voice commands. This makes it possible for officers to run pursuits, make traffic stops, and conduct license plate inquiries without taking their eyes off of the road or their hands from the wheel. There are two principal barriers to making the speech recognition systems work reliably. One is that both the software and the hardware have not matured sufficiently. The other problem is that the patrol car is a fairly noisy environment, and in order for speech recognition to work officers have to wear a headset that is impractical for officers that have to enter and exit the car often. The Project54 system uses an array microphone mounted on the dashboard of the patrol car, behind the steering wheel. This system requires little or no pre-recognition training of the software. The system has been deployed in the patrol cars of the New Hampshire State Police. Research associated with Project54 has revealed a problem with interference that many agencies didn’t know existed. Many of these problems can be remedied by better shielding, grounding, or replacement of faulty equipment.