RED the Agency was tasked with finding a creative way to help slow drivers in construction zones. Using Raspberry Pi devices coupled with sport radar guns we built stand-alone radar traps that would flash "You're the problem" to drivers speeding through construction areas.
The first prototype was constructed using a Raspberry Pi connected via serial to a radar gun. The Python game engine, PyGame, was used to handle both communication and rendering the results to a large display screen.
Our initial prototype, which we named "Wells" after H.G. Wells. Get it? It's a tripod.
All of the data was sent back to a database and displayed in real time on a website that compared the different cities in Alberta. For our first year we deployed these in several locations, which were moved occasionally.
Fun fact: generally when you are testing a radar gun, you use a tuning fork. Different forks can be tuned to frequencies that simulate the doppler effect of an oncoming car at a specific speed. Since we didn't have those we instead held competitions around the office to swing a tape ball at high enough speeds to trigger the messages.
After our initial proof of concept year we worked with the client to get more sophisticated devices and provide more detailed feedback on the website. The campaign received significant media attention and was well received.
Later versions used professional radar devices with built-in wireless access.
