The entire Project54 development team with the UNH/NH State Police test vehicle

An Update on the CAT Program

by Andrew Kun

In the fall of 1999 UNH and the New Hampshire Department of Safety (NHDS is the parent organization of the NH State Police) jointly received a grant from the US Department of Justice to pursue the development and deployment of new computing and wireless data communications technologies for use in police cruisers. This UNH/NHDS collaboration is formally called the Consolidated Advanced Technologies for Law Enforcement Program (the CAT Program). Activities at UNH are primarily located within the Consolidated Advanced Technologies Laboratory (CATLab).

The CAT Program is currently getting ready to deploy its first marked NH State Police cruiser. In the fall of 2000 and the winter of 2000-2001, the development efforts were concentrated on testing hardware and software modules in the lab car (the lab-car is an actual section of a police cruiser that has been cut down to the portion that includes the dashboard/cowl area and the front seat). In the spring of 2001, a prototype system was built in an unmarked cruiser. This system has an integrated GPS unit and VCR, controls for the lights and sirens, and a module to retrieve driver and vehicle data from an on-board database. All in-car systems are voice-operated and give feedback using voice. The marked cruiser being equipped at the present time will first travel to APCO 2001, an international law-enforcement trade show to be held in August 2001 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The cruiser will then be deployed in the Concord, NH area and will be used in everyday police activities.

A large group of UNH faculty, staff, and students are involved in CATLab activities this summer. The program is directed by RCC Director and ECE research faculty member Bill Lenharth, and ECE faculty members Tom Miller and Andrew Kun. ECE graduate students Borislav Batinic, Anil Chintalapati, Rong Gao, Nevenka Kozomora, John Mock, Albert Pelhe, Dragan Vidacic, and Brett Vinciguerra, and Stratham high school graduate Chris Cary are working on software design for the system. ECE graduate student Pavlo Melnyk is working along with ECE faculty member Rich Messner on operating system software for the vehicle’s embedded computer, including support for video camera input and digital video recording. ECE graduate student Michael Martin and ECE faculty member Frank Hludik are continuing to develop a programmable interface module to connect equipment with standard serial or parallel digital interfaces to the new industry standard IDB (Intelligent Transportation System Data Bus) automotive serial data bus. ECE graduate student Mike Dalton is developing self-paced interactive web-based technical training materials for use by public safety personnel who must use the newly developed technologies. ECE graduate student Maxim Khankin is working with ECE faculty member Kent Chamberlin to develop electromagnetic models to analyze the geographic coverage and noise performance of the NH State Police VHF radio system. ECE graduate student Craig Lombard is working on the hardware implementation of the system. ECE graduate student Kadir Dogan is working on a prototype remote access system that will allow police officers to access some of the in-car functionality when they step outside of the cruiser. Kadir is expected to receive his Master’s degree by the middle of August 2001. He will then head back to Turkey and resume his service in the Turkish Navy.

The last twelve months were full of excitement for the CAT Program. To get an update on future developments, please visit the program’s website at www.catlab.unh.edu.