How machine vision cameras solve challenges for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)

In today's rapidly evolving smart cities, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are essential for managing traffic, enhancing road safety, and optimizing transportation networks. However, these systems often face complex challenges that can hinder their efficiency. Teledyne FLIR Integrated Imaging Solutions has developed the Forge®️ 5GigE camera to address these challenges and revolutionize ITS applications. Here is how Forge brings significant benefits across various ITS applications:

High-Speed, High-Resolution Imaging

Existing imaging systems using USB3 or 1GigE machine cameras can capture Full HD (FHD) images at over 100 frames per second. While this allows them to capture vehicles moving at high speeds, the detail is often limited. For example, identifying the driver behind a windshield or reading reflective license plates can be challenging. Upgrading to higher resolution images typically reduces the image capture speed due to bandwidth limitations. This results in unclear images of fast-moving vehicles, especially in dynamic environments like toll roads, highways, and tunnels.

The Forge 5GigE camera is designed to overcome these limitations and provides high-resolution images quickly with internal 10Gbps image acquisition speeds. This means users do not need to immediately upgrade to a full 10GigE infrastructure. The camera works with existing 1, 2.5, and 5GigE infrastructures, providing a significant boost in image capture speed without the high cost of a complete system upgrade. This performance makes it ideal where speed and detail are crucial such as at traffic intersections, and in vehicle counting and road inspections applications.

Reliability in Harsh Conditions

ITS equipment must operate 24/7 and in harsh conditions including extreme temperatures. Sensitive electronic components like cameras typically require more attention in complex designs to prevent issues like overheating, image capture and data transfer delays, and packet drops. These problems can lead to system malfunctions and increased maintenance time and costs.

The Forge 5GigE camera is built to withstand extreme temperatures ranging from 0°C to 50°C and includes a large buffer memory to prevent data loss. It operates efficiently without external cooling, ensuring continuous performance in environments like outdoor traffic surveillance and toll booths. This reduces maintenance costs and ensures reliable year-round performance.

Precision Timing for Accurate Vehicle Detection

Accurate vehicle detection is crucial for efficient traffic management. What happens inside a camera (time between vehicle detection and triggering) varies because camera architectures from various manufacturers react differently when receiving a triggering signal. Some cameras require a reset or wake cycle to capture an image, while others need the CMOS sensor to complete a full scan cycle which can lead to millisecond delays. In some cases, cameras may capture an image during a half-way scan, resulting in jittery images. These issues lead to missed detections and unreliable data.

After receiving the triggering signal, the Forge 5GigE camera provides nanosecond precision triggering with its ActionCommand feature. With the Trigger-to-Exposure Start feature, the camera is always ready and resets the CMOS sensor immediately, regardless of the scanning position, resulting in zero image jitter. This ensures that every vehicle is detected accurately and promptly, enhancing data reliability and traffic management efficiency.

Multi-Camera Synchronization

Effective traffic management often requires multiple synchronized cameras to cover large areas. Developing multi-camera systems can be challenging due to cabling complexity and costs, especially when cameras are installed at varying distances from the host PC. Longer distances often require an additional switch and cause slight delays compared to cameras without a switch. This can cause some cameras to fall out of sync. In applications that require stitching images from multiple cameras, this lack of synchronization can lead to additional post-processing delays.

The Forge 5GigE camera simplifies multi-camera setups and requires only a single cable connection for data transfer, PoE power supply, and image trigger signals. With PTP (IEEE 1588), it provides superior synchronization capabilities and can synchronize as many cameras as possible with less than one microsecond of variance. The Teledyne Spinnaker®️ SDK GigE driver ensures all data is transferred without loss and with minimal hardware resources. This high level of synchronization simplifies data integration and provides a comprehensive view of traffic flow and congestion, enabling more efficient managing and planning of complex traffic networks from intersections to entire highway systems.

Low-Light Environments

High-resolution images without quality are worthless for performing tasks such as road and rail condition inspections, vehicle and driver identification, and license plate recognition. Not all CMOS sensor cameras are built the same. Many cameras often fail to provide the necessary clarity and reliability needed in varying lighting conditions and in low-light environments. It is crucial that a camera fully utilizes the potential of the CMOS sensors.

The Forge 5GigE camera features the latest Sony® Pregius® S sensors with Back-Illuminated Structure (BIS) technology, improving light sensitivity and dynamic range to provide superior image clarity, sharpness, and color fidelity. The Pregius S CMOS sensor packs more pixels into the same sensor format and achieves higher resolution without requiring larger, more expensive lenses. This keeps the imaging system compact. With advanced camera features like lens shading correction, burst mode, and multi-exposure for HDR with sequencer, the Forge 5GigE camera further enhances image quality and makes it ideal for applications in all lighting conditions, from bright daylight to low-light environments such as tunnels.

Conclusion

The Forge 5GigE camera from Teledyne FLIR Integrated Imaging Solutions is designed to meet the needs of modern ITS. It simplifies complex challenges with its:

• high-speed imaging
• robust reliability
• precision timing
• superior multi-camera synchronization
• exceptional image quality

By integrating the Forge 5GigE camera into your ITS infrastructure, you can enhance efficiency, accuracy, and overall imaging system performance while reducing complexity and costs. For more information or to schedule a demo, contact our sales team. We’re here to help you take your ITS to the next level.