Inset: Qvision founder Greg Yova
of these try to convey what they’re seeing by showing images of these cameras on their websites. However the problem is that these are more often than not jpeg images updated at frequent intervals. These jpegs show the volume of traffic, but don’t show the traf- fic’s speed, so it remains difficult to make an informed decision about which route to take – jpegs don’t really show the dif- ference between 30 miles per hour and three, yet delays are significantly differ- ent, and that makes a big difference for drivers trying to make decisions about their journey. The high cost, inefficiency and down-
right unreliability of live streaming of cameras makes them a poor solution because, to make sure they’re avail- able when they’re most needed – in bad weather for example – the bandwidth requirements are huge.
SO IS THERE A SOLUTION? Well, we’ve found one at the world’s busiest land border crossing, which can now be exported around the world. The solution is called Qvision, and
was created for a website called Bor-
derTraffic.com, in order to monitor the 70 million crossings per year between Tijuana in Mexico California.
and San Diego,
NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION It was the brainchild of electrical engi- neer Greg Yova. Greg and his wife Mar- garet were frequently travelling across the border while they established an orphanage in the impoverished Mexi- can city. While Margaret admits she just enjoyed “people watching” during the long waits at the border, she says Greg would get fidgety about the time he was wasting in queues, “he just kept saying something must be done,” she says “so he kept coming up with ideas on how he could better manage our crossings to minimise the wait. The first dozen or so didn’t work, then he hit on the captured video idea.” That idea was to capture short dura-
tions of video from multiple cameras to show different border access points and then put them on a continuous loop on a website, updating them as needed based upon the needs of the particular situa- tion. Viewers got to see timely video of
smartHIGHWAYS Vol 2 No 1
“He pointed out that with our technology, you could easily use the
countless existing traffic cameras to provide the source video so that
changing from jpegs or live streaming to our video would become a valuable and effective solution”
70 million crossings are monitored per year via the
BorderTraffic.com website
the waits without having to stream the video live. And the update frequency was sufficient for any changes in traffic to be captured within a couple of min- utes of them happening. This was more than enough for planning of a journey, just as timely as sensors (which have a built-in latency) and far more frequent updates than the radio. “It was more complicated than it
sounded,” says Greg. “We secured loca- tions for our cameras and then had to work out a way to capture the images, transmit them, time and date stamp them, and send them to a website in a format ready to work on multiple plat- forms because of course different web browsers, tablets and phones use differ- ent video formats. “And it had to happen in the blink of
an eye. The concept seems simple but it took nearly a year and a sizeable invest- ment of funds to create and refine a solu- tion.” The technology is so unique that it is patent pending. So how did they do it? “We’re not tell-
ing you that!” laughs Margaret, “that’s our secret sauce! “The important thing isn’t how we
do it, but rather how people can use it to make their journeys more effi- cient and less frustrating”.
smarthighways.net
GOING LOOPY One of the advantages of displaying the video clips is that a number of differ- ent views can be captured from a single camera and shared online all at one time, meaning you get far more valuable infor- mation shared from the same amount of hardware. For example, BorderTraffic. com uses just four cameras but conveys 18 different images of the traffic situa- tion. This means that video of each road approaching an intersection can be cap- tured from a single camera and shown simultaneously on a website, as opposed to the standard jpeg solution, which sim- ply captures the image the operators in a control room happen to be seeing. And because the video is delivered to
the traveller’s device not by way of typical streaming it’s a constant picture which doesn’t buffer, break up or disappear altogether like streamed video can. But is a looped video really enough
for people to use to make informed decisions? “We found some research at a State Department of Transporta- tion” says Greg, “which shows that when view- ing moving
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