Busted!: In this infrared image of the front seat of a Ford Focus, technology from Vehicle Occupancy has tagged the driver with a yellow dot, indicating that he’s human, while ignoring a dummy in the passenger seat. The image was produced in real time, while the car was traveling at about 50 miles per hour.
Vehicle Occupancy
A new infrared system can tell people from decoys.
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.
Long-lasting near-infrared LEDs could be used to make cheap, flexible night-vision displays and sensors.
These chips could lead to highly sensitive night-vision goggles and new medical imaging devices.
In order to circumvent this charade, I,m going to start manufacturing heated dummies.
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.
Catching Carpool-lane cheaters with new technology is an interesting development but it is missing the overall problem. Carpool lanes were created to decrease traffic, by promoting car pooling.
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.
Commercialization
Innovation Management
Guest (DennisB)
As taxpayers, don't we all pay for the roads already? This is just another example of the states trying to dictate behavior, when they created the system in which it operates.
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.
In the case of major population centers, funnel the moneny into revitalizing and expanding rail and bus systems (in that order). Then, add-on incentives to leave the cars at home. The benefits in terms of reduced traffic, reduced road rage, reduced pollution etc. would truly represent a wise expenditure of the public's money.
Guest (rafael7)
The writer who calls for ramping up out mass transit systems is spot on. I am as guilty as the next guy. I own several personal vehicles. As I look around me in traffic I am constantly amazed that as a highly evolved, intelligent species we allow 3000 lbs of gas-guzzling, pollution belching steel to transport a couple hundred pounds of flesh from the mall to the dentist to the workplace. It's reprehensible. I do favor transport by motorcycle, and am so anal about being without my OWN vehicle whenever I travel, near or far. But I am just aware of my fault and it only adds a layer of guilt. I rode the bus for nearly a year once when I was down on my luck. Truth is, it doesn't hurt much, and you meet a lot of interesting people. As a nation we need to wake up to the fact that we are killing ourselves and the planet with our excess and ignorance. Rant Complete.
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
This document is part of the “How-To Guide for Most Common Measurements” centralized resource portal. This tutorial provides a detailed guide for measurement and device considerations to take temperature measurements using thermocouples. Get an introduction to thermocouples, which are inexpensive sensing devices widely used with PC-based data acquisition systems. Also review some specific thermocouple examples and learn how thermocouples work and ways to integrate them into a data acquisition measurement system.
View full PDF >
Listen to story > 
On Twitter
Become a Fan on Facebook
Subscribe to the Feed
YankeeBruce
21 Comments
Cost to Benefit
So the government is going to spend $100k+ per station to catch 3 people a year? Nice use of my money. Why do they have to spend so much effort to prevent something that is "very rare"?
Reply
Guest (Orion73)
Re: Cost to Benefit
I read the article as stating that the use of dummies in the passenger seat in "very rare". This technology and it's value lies in catching those inevitable - and let's face it, very not rare - individuals who feel the rules don't apply to them. Now, if you really must get there faster than everyone else, you just have to be willing to pay the extra price. With a toll instead of a ticket.
Reply
z0rr0
99 Comments
Re: Cost to Benefit
All bass-ackward..
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.
Reply