well, SO that once the camera identifies motion it can be programmed to continue to track a given size, shape, or color regardless of any other motion," Sun says. Sun believes that a camera that can quickly track motion has a psycholog- ical effect on criminals. "If they see that the camera is following their move- ments, they may think that a security guard is manually operating the camera and is aware of their presence. It's likely that the criminal would then decide to go elsewhere." Besides property surveillance at places such as ATM machines, offices, warehouses, factories, and homes, the camera has applica- tions for homeland defense, military uses, child monitoring, playground sur- veillance, border patrol, and videoconferencing. "Existing videoconferencing equipment requires the speaker to remain in one place in front of a station- ary camera. With the AIMS camera people can walk around and the camera will automatically follow them," Sun says. SMART ROADS Sun's technology is based on an image-processing algorithm for real-time tracking. Because of the effectiveness and computational efficiency of the algo- rithm, the feedback control loop can quickly achieve reliable tracking per- formance. The algorithm is implemented in the Visual C++ language for use on a Windows-based PC, but the algorithm can also be configured to operate on an embedded PC, handheld computer, or a digital signal processor chip. Video recording can be triggered by the presence of motions and stored on a computer hard drive as AVI files. Motions can also automatically trigger an alarm or other security measures. 7.5 SMART ROADS The same in-road detectors that control traffic lights could soon help unsnarl traffic jams, thanks to software developed by an Ohio State University engineer. In tests, the software helped California road crews discover traffic jams up to three times faster, allowing them to clear accidents and restore traffic flow before drivers could be delayed. The technology could also be used to provide drivers with inform