A driver runs a red light. Unknown to the driver, a camera has recorded his action. The film will later be analyzed to help transportation officials understand why some drivers ignore the law.

Because of research being conducted at Iowa State, this scenario could become a reality.

Automatic digital video analysis could be an asset to understanding driver behavior and how to correct bad driving behaviors.

Nathan Willis, junior in aerospace engineering, designed the project as part of his freshman honors project with Derrick Parkhurst, assistant professor of psychology.

Willis said he has made significant progress since he began working on the project last spring. Parkhurst said the progress has helped secure a $10,000 grant from the Iowa Department of Transportation, which has been involved with the project since its conception.

“There’s a lot of potential for this technology to be applied to transportation,” he said.

The plan is to have a regular camcorder take pictures at an intersection and have the attached software collect data such as location, number of pedestrians and the speed of the cars, Parkhurst said.

This new technology revolutionize research as crash data won’t be necessary to determine the safety of an intersection, he said. Instead of taking six months to a year to collect data, the new software will have usable statistics after a month. The data will be used to improve safety and eventually save lives.

Jaime Reyes, Iowa DOT safety review engineer, said the department is waiting to see if the software will work before it thinks of ways to use it. He said they want to understand driving behaviors because things like rumble strips and flashing beacons are being ignored by drivers and accidents are still occurring.

“We’re always looking for ways to improve safety,” Reyes said.

Analyzing traffic is not the only use for digital video analysis, Willis said.

He also said this software can be used to track anything that moves.

“[The software can track] anything where you don’t want to put a person recording statistics and you want a whole variety of statistics that you wouldn’t be able to get with someone watching,” he said. “There are so many possibilities.”