Project Report
 

Name – UHPS (Unnecessary Honking Prevention System)

 

Objective – To reduce the noise pollution caused by unnecessary honking amidst traffic

 

Motivation – I got the idea for this project when I myself experienced the terrible annoyance caused by incessant honking. This noise comes from impatient drivers who honk constantly for no reason. Researchers say that about 60% - 70% of noise pollution is caused by honking of vehicles. It affects our hearing, especially those of the elderly, people who are extremely sensitive to loud noise, young children and even animals. It can severely damage their hearing ability, which can lead to profound hearing loss or even deafness. It is often difficult for the patient to recognize and diagnose such hearing loss and if he is unable to do so at an early stage, then the treatment becomes very difficult and the patient can lose his hearing ability forever. This treatment is also expensive. I am proposing a solution to this problem, through a hardware-software circuit which can be installed in vehicles, called the “UHPS (Unnecessary Honking Prevention System)”. This project is mainly based on the traffic conditions in the New Town area of Kolkata. Through this project, I am mainly targeting the noise pollution caused by unnecessary honking despite of the roads being clear.

What it does – After being installed into a vehicle, when a driver presses the horn button, this system will identify whether or not an obstacle is within 20 meters from the vehicle. If so, then the honking sound will be produced. If not, then there will be no sound. This will, to some extent, prevent drivers from honking uselessly, and thus prevent hearing loss among pedestrians and stray animals.

Structure – I have created the first prototype circuit of the system I intend to make. However, many other modifications are possible in this system. The prototype circuit consists a long breadboard, a 9V Battery, an LED, a resistor, a DIP switch, an Arduino UNO, an HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor, a Push Button (which resembles the horn button) and a buzzer (which acts as the source of the car horn). I have programmed the Arduino UNO Board using the Arduino IDE software. The Ultrasonic Sensor will detect the distance of the obstacle from the vehicle. If the distance is less than or equal to 20 cm (since it is just a miniature model, I am keeping the threshold value low. In the real project, the threshold can be around 20 metres or it can be set based on the requirement of the city or the area), the Arduino board will send high power to the 11th pin which is connected to the anode of an LED and the base of the transistor of the car horn circuit. With power supply to the base of the transistor, the circuit of the horn gets completed and the driver will be able to use the car horn.