Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems aren’t new, they’ve been successfully used in parking administration and speed enforcement for a number of years. What is new, however, is the level of intelligence available to these systems. ANPR relies on optical character recognition (OCR) where cameras capture letters and image processing techniques decode the characters one by one.
Improved sensors and processors now allow reading of plates in sub-optimal conditions such as poor lighting or fog. With the miniaturisation of components and advancements in processing power, image processing can now be carried out on the camera at the roadside rather than needing to be transferred to a control centre or to the cloud for further analysis. This means that images can be viewed at near real-time and more timely action taken as a result – for example, at entry points allowing access to authorised vehicles only.
Traffic cameras go beyond just ANPR, Active Traffic Management (ATM) solutions are becoming widespread. Smart motorways are a hot topic in the UK at the moment and the safety of the travelling public relies heavily on monitoring facilities – highway managers must be alerted quickly and accurately to any vehicle that’s not moving as it should on the motorway. Delays in knowing that a vehicle has stopped, or understanding the precise location of that vehicle, can endanger lives. Getting vital data quickly from the roadside to the control room is essential for efficiently monitoring roads and junctions.
ITS platforms are a major contributor to the development of Smart Cities as designers look to move traffic around in the most efficient manner. Companies such as Vivacity Labs have a range of solutions based on visual identification, machine learning and advanced algorithms to assist traffic managers and transport planners to build for the future.
Electronic Toll Management is another area benefiting from advances in technology. Traditional camera-based solutions are often used at toll gates to identify vehicles registered for pay-as-you-go schemes. More recently, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) sensors placed inside vehicles feed journey information to a central system which translates this into toll charges. Such systems are in use in a number of European countries to ease congestion at toll gates.
Steatite products are used in various traffic applications, adding industry-leading vison and compute capability to traffic monitoring, average-speed cameras, ANPR and surveillance applications. Harrier autofocus-zoom (AFZ) camera solutions, from our imaging division, Active Silicon, deliver high-speed processing on a compact camera making it ideal for traffic and transport applications. Variations are even available to transfer HD video data over coax cables up to 700m.
