About Speed Guns

It is a device to measure the speed of a moving object without having to be in contact with the object. It was originally developed during World War 2 for military use.

Functioning of a Speed Guns

It consists of a radio transmitter and a receiver.

The transmitter emits radio waves, which the person using the speed gun can direct at the object.

The receiver then captures the waves reflected by the object back in the direction of the speed gun.

The speed gun employs the Doppler Effect to calculate the speed of the object based on the frequency difference between the transmitted and reflected waves.

Application: Speed guns are widely used by law enforcement officials to monitor traffic speed, by coaches to measure the performance of their athletes, and in other industries that require motion tracking.

Limitations:

Radio Waves tend to diverge as they move through the air, producing inaccurate speed readings.

A continuous wave reading may produce faulty readings due to interference from multiple vehicles.

Due to these limitations, LIDAR speed guns are being promoted as they use laser light instead of radio waves.

Laser light has very low divergence, offering better targeting.

About LiDAR:

Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is a remote sensing technology that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (or variable distances) of a sensor, usually mounted aboard an aircraft, to Earth’s surface.

LiDAR data can be used to create high-resolution 3-D models of ground elevation with a vertical accuracy of up to 10 cm.

Read more: SMILE Programme