Estimating IRI Using GoPro Footage: An Affordable and Effective Road Inspection Solution

Assessing road quality is a crucial task in infrastructure management. One of the most widely used indicators for this is the IRI — International Roughness Index. Traditionally, measuring IRI requires expensive equipment such as vehicle-mounted profilometers or laser sensors.

But what if I told you that we can calculate IRI using only a GoPro camera?

What Is IRI?

IRI is a standardized metric that represents the smoothness or roughness of a road surface, measured in meters per kilometer (m/km). The lower the IRI value, the smoother the road.
IRI is widely used by:

• Government agencies (like public works departments) for road evaluations,
• Contractors for quality assurance in road construction,
• Transport or logistics startups for route optimization.

The Problem with Traditional IRI Measurement

Traditional IRI measurement tools include:

• Vehicle-Mounted Profilometers – accurate but extremely expensive.
• Accelerometer + GPS Setups – relatively cheaper but require careful calibration and integration. The issue? These tools are not accessible to everyone.

The Solution: GoPro + Algorithms
We explored the possibility of estimating IRI from road video recordings using affordable, widely available GoPro cameras.

Here’s how it works:
1. Record Road Footage
Mount a GoPro camera on your vehicle dashboard.
Record videos at a stable frame rate (ideally 30–60 fps).
2. Extract Road Features from Video
Frame-by-frame analysis using computer vision.
Our algorithm detects vibrations, surface texture, and visual oscillation.
3. Estimate IRI
Visual data is converted into numerical metrics.
Calibrated to match standard IRI values for reliable estimation.

Why It Matters
✅ Affordable
✅ Fast – Just record, upload, and get results in minutes.
✅ Flexible – Perfect for city walks, rural routes, or logistics planning.
✅ Web-based – Everything runs on a browser-based dashboard.

Introducing: DPS-IRI
We’ve built DPS-IRI, a web-based platform that lets you estimate IRI directly from GoPro footage. Key features include:

1. 📹 Upload video → 📊 Get IRI estimates
2. 🗺️ Interactive Map Visualization
3. 📁 Export CSV / GeoJSON Data
4. 👥 Project & Team Collaboration

Try It Yourself
contact us directly at: [e-mail]

Final Thoughts
Measuring IRI doesn’t have to be expensive or complex. With a GoPro camera and a smart web platform, anyone can begin assessing road conditions more efficiently and affordably.

If you’re curious or would like to collaborate, we’d love to connect with you!

🙌 Thanks for reading! Follow me for more content on programming, GIS, and infrastructure tech.

Comments

[Grimmnir]

I tried something similar using a basic action cam setup, and syncing the timestamps with GPS data was tricky at first but manageable. For anyone looking to explore more creative uses of tech like this, I found a cool piece on gigwise.com that talked about using affordable gear in unexpected ways—it gave me a few ideas on streamlining my workflow.

[HomelessJimmy]

I just wanted to ask—has anyone tested this method in different lighting or weather conditions? I’m working on something similar and curious how well the results hold up if the footage isn’t recorded in ideal situations. Would love to hear any updates or new experiments others have tried since this was shared.