DILAW 

Executive Summary 

Colorum vehicles plague the public transportation system of the country, endangering commuters, worsening traffic, and eating into the earning of valid PUV operators. Traditional solutions are labor-intensive for the government and inconvenience commuters and PUVs alike. A low-cost technology solution based on short range radios can help.  

The Problem 

Colorum is huge problem in the country, with a significant number of illegal or problematic public utility vehicles plying our roads. The traditional way of dealing with the problem is through”operations” in which a group of officers would inspect each and every vehicle in a route, flagging them down and asking for registration or validation documents. This is obviously very incovenient for commuters and the drivers alike. Moreover, given the labor-intensiveness of this solution, it is not something that is sustainable or successfully applied.  

The Solution 

Radio/wireless beaconing system based on IEEE 802.15.4 carried by vehicles, with mobile receivers based on cellphones or low-power laptops, which are carried by enforcers. The low-power laptops or cellphones are assumed to have Internet connectivity, thus enabling the authentication or identification of vehicle sending out the beacons. Vehicles that will not be seen by the system, or will be seen but identified as having problems (wrong route, expired registration) can then be flagged down by the enforcers. Legal or valid vehicles carrying the device would not have to be flagged down or inconvenienced. 

Competitive Advantage 

No recurring or subscription fees for mobile or network connectivity (unlike GPS devices) 

Simpler, cheaper device 

Target Market 

Aside from traffic law enforcement, near field presence detection or location-based applications that do not need extremely precise location data 

Contact 

wmtan@dcs.upd.edu.ph