Police recruitment: Laser devices likely to increase transparency

CHENNAI: Soon, Tamil Nadu police will be using laser-based timing devices designed by the Anna University in their recruitment process to digitally record the time taken by candidates to finish the running tests.
These automatic devices which costs up to Rs 1.5-2 lakh each not only limits human interference but also brings in more transparency as records can’t be tampered, say researchers.



The research was funded by the Tamil Nadu Uniform Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB), an agency functioning under the state home department Every time TNUSRB conducts a recruitment drive to fill vacant police constable, sub-inspector, jail warden or firemen posts, tens of thousands apply. Earlier this year, nearly 3.26 lakh applied for 6,140 constable posts.

All these applicants have to go through a physical and a written test. Applicants are expected to complete 100-1,500 metre circuit races within the stipulated time as a part of the physical test.

At present, a manual operator is employed for the purpose of measuring the time taken by each applicant to complete the running tests.

Hence, it consumes a lot of time and constant human intervention makes the system error-prone.

Given the magnitude and sheer scale of tests to the conducted, TNUSRB decided to automate this system and sought help from Anna University.

A three-member team — S Thamarai Selvi, director of Centre for Technology Development & Transfer (CTDT), K Senthil Kumar, director of Centre for Aerospace Research and P Karthikeyan, a research scholar at Madras Institute of Technology, Chrompet — with the help of computer technology students came up with a working model recently.

Explaining this, Thamarai Selvi said a laser source and a light dependent resistor (LDR) are fixed on both the ends of all the tracks at ground level.

The position of athlete should be such a way that they block the laser from falling on the LDR, a component used to measure light intensity.

As soon as the candidates start to run, laser from the source falls on the LDR.

A computer program, which monitors LDR readings, would start the timer as soon as the readings change.

At the finish line, a similar set up is installed at a horizontal pole fixed at a height of seven feet above. Corresponding changes in LDR are recorded and timer is stopped.

These readings are sent to an ‘Arduino’ microcontroller which is connected to a desktop or laptop. After processing this data, the software will provide the final results (finish time of each applicant) in a PDF format.

Besides this, if the applicant starts to run before the gun shot, then laser will affect the LDR readings. So it is inferred as a false start. Trial runs were successfully completed and is all set for implementation, she added.