SEATTLE, May 27, 1999 (PRIMEZONE) -- Sonic Systems Corporation of Delaware (NASDAQ: ZSON) announced today that the SONEM 2000 signal priority system for emergency vehicles developed and marketed by its subsidiary, Sonic Systems Corporation of British Columbia, has received approval from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) for testing its acoustic-based system.
The Colerain Township Department of Fire and Emergency Management Services and the Colerain Township Corridor Committee, which requested ODOT's approval, will now begin testing for at least 90 days at three adjoining intersections. Adjacent Hamilton County, which includes the city of Cincinnati, will also be testing the SONEM 2000. This will enable the two jurisdictions to examine the performance of the system when emergency service vehicles travel from one jurisdiction to another.
Colerain's need for signal priority arose because a hard barrier is being installed down the middle of a 7-mile stretch of road for safety reasons. As a result, the fire department will no longer be able to swing wide to the left to go around traffic at an intersection. Colerain expects the SONEM 2000 signal priority system will maintain or even improve response times from what they had before the road was reconfigured. The test will provide data on the effects of signal priority.
The SONEM 2000 is an acoustic-based signal prioritization system that can detect the sound from the siren on emergency services vehicles. Upon "hearing" a valid siren, the system first determines the vehicle's direction of approach and identifies the type of siren used. The system then passes a request to the traffic signal controller at the intersection to give the emergency vehicle a green light. All other directions of approach are held with a red light until the intersection is clear, at which time the traffic lights return to normal operation. The prioritization process greatly improves the speed and safety of delivering emergency services and typically represents a minor 30-second delay for normal traffic.
Sonic Systems Corporation of British Columbia serves the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) market with environmentally tolerant, sensor management platforms adapted to traffic signal prioritization for emergency services and transit vehicles and is a leading provider of acoustic-based signal prioritization systems.
Sonic Systems Corporation of Delaware is a multi-faceted provider of technology to the Computing, Communications, and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) industries in support of information movement and management applications.
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Note: Sonic Systems, a Delaware corporation with offices in Seattle, Washington, is in no way affiliated with Sonic Systems, Inc., a California corporation with headquarters in Santa Clara, California, which provides Internet security solutions.