INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT
on a car, we succeeded in cutting it by more than 50 per cent,’ Arrighetti said. ‘Tis is the final challenge: to realise a system that, without relaxing accuracy requirements, fits into a car without any problem.’ Te improvements made in sensor resolution
in recent years played an important role for increasing the number of lanes from two to six. ‘To cover six lanes we need more pixels in order to ensure the same accuracy. To achieve the T-Exspeed v.3.0 result of six lanes monitoring we must use very high-resolution and fast readout sensors,’ he said. ‘Tis time we have designed scalable mechanical and soſtware architectures, forward compatible also with future sensors.’
Targeted solutions For applications where it is not necessary to observe every type of incident, targeted systems are being developed to serve one specific function, rather than several, to provide a more cost-effective option. Tis was the case for Eutecus, a video
analytics solution provider, which developed a low-cost instrument for detecting red-light violations. For this application, the company partnered with Teledyne Dalsa, who provided a Camera Link version of its Genie TS cameras to be used with Eutecus’ Bi-i Smart Cube platform, a multi-core video analytics engine. Te analytics engine that operates the
system was embedded with the camera so that the entire solution could be installed above ground, providing authorities with a simplified solution that is less costly than traditional traffic monitoring applications. Although the camera system gathers the
same type of images used by more conventional traffic monitoring applications, the data is parsed so that only the red light violations are captured. In other words, the Genie TS camera acquires frames continuously, but images in which no violation occurs are discarded. In this application, the camera provides the primary video analytics source, monitoring both the traffic light and the traffic itself. Typically, the Genie camera acquires images
of both the traffic light and the vehicle in relation to the intersection stop line. If the images of the traffic light and the vehicle/stop line don’t align as they should, indicating a violation, then the picture is sent to an operator. Te scene analysis is combined with radar
data, and a second, low-resolution video camera is used for providing documentation to verify cases when a driver disputes a ticket. Te system is also capable of capturing multiple events
The Kria T-Exspeed system is capable of measuring speed, among other factors, in up to six lanes simultaneously
simultaneously, such as if more than one car runs a red light at the same time. Designing a system targeted at one
application is also allowing manufacturers to develop smaller, stand-alone automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems. Last year, Vision Components introduced
its ANPR Carrida soſtware engine, which, more recently, it has combined with a camera with on-board processing, thus providing an embedded system much smaller than conventional traffic solutions for ANPR. ‘Te clue with the Carrida Cam embedded
system is that no other hardware is necessary – not even a PC. All processing is done directly and immediately on-board the CPU camera board,’ said Jan-Erik Schmitt, vice-president of sales at Vision Components. Te system is capable of recognising number
plates in several lanes simultaneously, as well as in other applications where ANPR is relevant, such as access control. Te camera employed in the system is from
the company’s Arm-based VC Z series, which was introduced at the Vision show last year. It features five different CMOS sensors with global shutter and a resolution of up to 4.2 megapixels. To ensure image quality when capturing fast-
moving objects, such as cars on the motorway, the camera’s electronic shutter mechanism is important. In a rolling shutter sensor, all of the pixels in one row of the imager are exposed one line at a time, starting from the top and scrolling down over the sensor. Terefore, if the camera is capturing a fast moving vehicle, and a rolling shutter is used, the exposure will start when the car is in one position, and by the time the exposure reaches the bottom line, the vehicle would have moved. Tis can cause unwanted effects on the final image. By using a global shutting mechanism, as in the VC Z camera model, the entire imager is
20 Imaging and Machine Vision Europe • April/May 2015
reset before integration to remove any residual signal in the sensor wells. Terefore, all of the pixels are exposed at the same time, providing a better quality image.
The road ahead During the next five years intelligent transport systems will advance to incorporate a wider range of functions that spread across different market sectors, according to Kria’s Arrighetti: ‘In my vision, enforcement, security, pay toll and statistic applications shall merge into a single multi-purpose device. Te end user will no longer need to install many single-function devices on the same road: a device conceived only for violation detection, a traffic webcam, an ANPR camera, a vehicle counter sensor, and so on,’ he stated. ‘Tere will be one device and several control rooms, each one monitoring and managing different traffic information collected by the same multi-purpose device.’ And, even the way the data is dealt with
on the other side will evolve to become more efficient; central stations may not necessarily be a physical room because the clients have the soſtware installed on devices such as tablets or smart phones, Arrighetti added. ‘Doing so means that the drivers will also be able to access some information provided by this open architecture,’ he said. ‘Technically this is already possible, but also the ITS regulations and standards shall evolve to such new available technologies. ‘Looking at the specific field of machine
vision, it is already evident that, among the so-called “internet of things”, many of the next “things” will be ITS related: cars, traffic signs, on-board mobile units will all be internet connected and interoperable units,’ Arrighetti continued. ‘We must not defend our own proprietary solutions, but fearlessly open to the integration with other emerging technologies.’ O
@imveurope
www.imveurope.com
Kria
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44