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City boys design GPS- based meter that is rig- proof EVERYDAY arguments with autorickshaw drivers over faulty meters could soon be a thing of the past if a new tamper-proof fare meter finds favour with the transport authorities. The new gadget developed by two masters of computer application students in the city uses the satellitebased global positioning system (GPS) technology. Ashish Gupta and Rahul Gupta, both students of the Jagannath Institute of Management Sciences in Rohini, presented a paper on the subject at EmTech India 2009, an emerging- technology conference held in Delhi recently. The two are now looking for funding to take their product to the production stage. If they get the nod from the authorities, the duo plans to carry out modifications in the design so that it can even be used as advertising screen, providing source of income for the autorickshaw owners. The electronic meters currently in use relies on the number of wheel rotations to calculate the distance travelled. “If you decrease the size of the “wheel bush” there will be more rotations for the same distance, leading to overcharging,” Ashish said. Apart from that, whenever fares are revised, it takes three- four months to upgrade the meters with proper authentication from the transport department. The two claimed their meter is more accurate and tamperproof. It uses the GPS, which is based on inputs from 27 satellites, to calculate distance and the money to be charged. The meter has an embedded GPS signal receiver which receives two signals from satellites every second. These signals give information like longitude, latitude and time. “ We use this information to calculate distance between two points. Distance is calculated every second and at the end of the journey all the figures are added,” he said. The meter has an inbuilt coding system which makes it tamper- proof. “ Once opened it gets destroyed,” Ashish said. The meter will have a chip containing information on the charges per kilometre. If the fares are revised, all the auto owners have to do is replace the chip available with the authorities. If a tampered chip is placed the meter will not function. “ Thus, there will be no need to authenticate the meters with revised rates by the transport authorities, which takes time. The inbuilt system will itself authenticate the chip,” Ashish said. The two students have carried out several field studies in November and December 2008. “ We used to travel between Netaji Subhash Place near Wazirpur and Rohini to find out the anomalies in the current meters in autos and test our meter.” While the distance covered between the two points is 7.5 kilometres, the meters currently in use showed the distance to be between 6.8 km to 10.8 km. There was overcharging of up to Rs 15- 20. The variation in distance calculated by the new meter was marginal – between7.4 and 7.6 km. This exercise was carried out for one and half months. The new meter costs about Rs 3000 which can be brought down if there is largescale production. The cost of the meters currently being used is between Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,000. savita.verma@mailtoday.in |