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Thursday, October 11, 2007 Foiling Carpool-Lane CheatersA new infrared system can tell people from decoys. By Tom Mashberg
Solo commuters frustrated by snarled traffic have taken extreme measures to sneak into high-occupancy carpool lanes: costumed mannequins in passenger seats, dolls swaddled like babies--even dogs in bonnets. But a company called Vehicle Occupancy, based at Loughborough University, in Leicestershire, England, says that it has developed an infrared camera-mounted scanning system that foils 95 percent of such trickery. Automated systems for counting passengers have a heightened appeal as many urban areas with crowded roadways contemplate occupancy-based tolls as a way to pay for new highway construction. "We are far better at looking inside the car than the human," says Tim Ballantyne, Vehicle Occupancy's director of business development. "We can see 95 percent of the people in the car, whereas a trooper sees just 65 percent." Vehicle Occupancy's system, dubbed Dtect, was tested against humans from a distance of 150 feet, with cars moving at about 50 miles per hour, Ballantyne says. According to Ballantyne, Dtect uses a proprietary infrared technology that can identify human skin by measuring its water content and detecting hemoglobin in the blood just beneath the skin. Mounted at the mouth of the travel lane, the Dtect camera captures two images of oncoming vehicles at different frequencies in the infrared range. At those frequencies, live human skin has different light-absorbing attributes than heated plastic or steam emanating from a cup of coffee--or even a bladder of hot water, which might be used to try to fool the system. In addition to recognizing the infrared signatures of hemoglobin and water, Dtect's software can differentiate between a person and a large animal, using algorithms similar to those found in face-recognition systems. "There are two levels," says Ballantyne. "First, we filter out things that are not live--the dummies and so on--and in the second layer, we look at the image and can reject the second level of trickery that might be dogs or a warm human hand held up to where the infrared light is aimed at." Ballantyne says that skin tone and heavy makeup are not obstacles to the system, but a small child bundled in a back seat could be missed. The system's price--100,000 English pounds for two infrared illuminators, two cameras, a central processing unit, waterproof housing, software, and a battery pack--could make it a tough sell. But it has still attracted interest in Virginia. Officials there are moving toward a multitiered pricing system for the tolls that will fund 14 new miles of high-occupancy-vehicle interstate roadway for the Capitol Beltway, and another 56 miles between Fredericksburg and the Pentagon. Solo drivers who opt to pay the toll will have access to the roads; carpoolers will ride free. But the state needs a way to distinguish cars with one passenger from those with multiple passengers without forcing vehicles to slow down to be observed by state police. |
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Nanowire LEDs
08/01/2007
Comments
YankeeBruce on 10/11/2007 at 8:37 AM
3
Orion73 on 10/11/2007 at 10:05 AM
1
z0rr0 on 10/15/2007 at 10:37 AM
24
The idea here is that once you can tell how many people occupy a car, then you can start a more refined "user tax" structure, and generate more revenues. Note that tolls rose wherever they put in EzPass. Our governments, at all levels, are becoming profit centers. Along the way the interest in serving has been lost.
aldecal on 10/11/2007 at 10:29 AM
4
Seriosly folks if you have a need to explore real transportation solution please e-mail me at knollallen@gmail.com. I find it truly rediculous to have HOV lanes in the first place unless there is a transportation system that could truly utilize that feature to affect a muc larger percentage of commuters getting to and from work with their employers paying out under IRS rules 132 for parking and transit passes. The road systems that we have in place are a tremendous asset but the systems being used currently are 2 to 3 generation behind the needs of today.
briang1621 on 10/11/2007 at 7:44 PM
43
There are two solutions for dealing with traffic,
1. Build more roads
2. Optimize the use of the current roads.
Millions upon millions are wasted in overages cost and overage time in building more roads. Actually, road construction for governments is one of the most ineffective building projects there are, you know you seen it first hand! How about a video detect that spots sleeping road construction workers instead! Dollar for dollar that is a better investment.
Optimizing the current road is something that is so simple, but is often overlooked. Light cueing is one item which in particular is abused. Have to drive 20 feet then stop for a light that is out of sequence wastes gas. If you add that up over a year for all the cars that un-necessarily stop you are looking at cumulatively thousands of dollars in wasted gas! Come on, Save gas by telling your local government to fit the lights! Then you have road setups, road configurations, and a so on.
This company should instead pour money into how to optimize cities roads, and become a consulting agency. Saving drives 20 mins a day for a cities drivers is a much better investment than trying to catch the 3 slick people frustrated with the system.
DennisB on 10/12/2007 at 3:16 PM
1
If they do not want crowded roads either:
-Build bigger ones, or
- Zone to keep the population down in given geographic areas.
But no, they would rather wave their finger at us and for not being PC and car pooling.
I am sure all the lawmakers who crafted this "system" carpool....right. And they send their kids to public schools....right.
Quonundrum on 10/15/2007 at 1:39 PM
1
rafael7 on 10/25/2007 at 12:39 PM
6