AI is ready to make the traffic of Smart Cities safer and free flowing

Security cameras are not new in traffic surveillance - Video technology already helps catch speeding, red light runners and monitor traffic density to avoid traffic jams. With the rise of AI, IoT and smart cities, it's time to think about taking traffic video surveillance to the next level. See how security cameras equipped with AI can help make our roads and highways safer.

The next level of Smart Traffic Surveillance

Today's traffic sensors are specialized in detecting “simple” traffic incidents such as cars driving through red lights or exceeding speed limits. They also help detect street conditions quantitatively, e.g. counting passing cars, enabling human operators to recognize traffic jams before they occur. Qualitative traffic analysis and control still requires humans, however, this will change soon with a new generation of smart video technology to be addressed in the following.

Smart Traffic Surveillance combining IoT security cameras and AI Video Analytics helps authorities, traffic planners and highway operators to systematically monitor and understand road users' behavior, and gain valuable insights from video data to optimize traffic flow and minimize accident risks - automatically and in real time.

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Imagine video surveillance systems at busy intersections in downtown areas not only detecting who violates traffic regulations, but also automatically analyzes and controls traffic flow. Recognizing actual road occupancy, smart camera systems could help manage traffic, for example, by controlling traffic lights that would no longer be time-controlled but smart.

IoT Cameras can do more than just video. At Azena we aim to make Security Camera Systems smarter so that they can perform complex tasks independently. With our open IoT platform, including a Camera OS and an Application Store, we enable camera users and system integrators to equip their camera systems with the latest AI video analytics.

“It couldn't be easier: You simply install the Apps you need from our Application Store on your cameras with a few clicks, just as you know it from your smartphone.” - Ajay Kattige 

How Smart Video Analytics enables smart traffic monitoring

Security cameras are designed to take videos and make it available for evaluation. To get more out of video footage, cameras need video analytics capabilities, for example, to distinguish people from cars, analyze traffic flow or “read” license plates. In our Application Store you find a wide range of Apps, easy to install on Security Cameras, ready to perform a variety of business tasks.

Worth reading: Forget CCTV (as you know it) - here comes smart video surveillance

Detect license plates even in twilight or bad weather conditions

Have you ever tried to recognize a license plate of a fast passing car? This is difficult, especially in poor light conditions. Where the human eye reaches its limits, high-resolution cameras empowered with smart video analytics can help identify speeding or control access systems in streets or parking lots. Traffic surveillance becomes both more reliable and more efficient.

Example: NeuroCar LPR EU is a camera application designed for detection and identification of vehicles and car number plates in motion. The app is not only trained to recognize sequences of letters on plates but also to country or region of origin.

Learn more about and get NeuroCar LPR EU

Using AI Video Analytics to analyze and optimize street layouts

Sustainable urban planning needs long-term traffic data in order to make the right decisions for necessary changes or adjustments in road layout and control. If more than random samples or snapshots are needed, smart surveillance cameras equipped with AI Video Analytics can provide valid data over a long period of time. And more: they turn data into valuable insights.

Example: GoodVision Connect captures and digitizes traffic insights from activity on roads and junctions using proprietary AI and provides powerful tools to obtain tedious traffic behavioural parameters in a fully interactive way. This helps transport surveyors and modellers to achieve more productivity and quality in traffic data analytics.

Learn more about and get GoodVision Connect

Get real-time insights to detect traffic anomalies

Traffic on busy roads is complex and often difficult to understand because of its dynamics. To avoid traffic jams and reduce the number of accidents, experts around the world are studying the laws of the road. As described above, traffic data are crucial for identifying systematic problems and taking appropriate action to solve them. Smart surveillance cameras can provide this data.

Example: Isarsoft Perception offers crowd counting, occupancy monitoring, crossline detection for traffic analysis in a single application. The camera screenshot below illustrates how crosslines, drawn directly into video, are used to detect, for example, if vehicles stay in their lanes or tend to change lanes frequently (which can cause traffic jams).

Learn more about and get Isarsoft Perception

Example: FLOW Traffic is another app that enables security cameras to detect traffic anomalies and find the reasons why traffic is not working as it should. Traffic can be continuously analyzed according to a variety of criteria such as object types, properties, types of movement, speeds, etc. Controlling and configuring the app is amazingly simple.

Learn more about and get FLOW Traffic

Monitoring (unauthorized) traffic in public parking lots

Traffic isn’t just about flow of vehicles and pedestrian motion, there are also hidden aspects that cannot be observed easily or even automated using conventional video cameras. A vehicle that drives over a red traffic light is easy to recognize. A vehicle that is parked in a parking lot longer than allowed often remains undetected. The same applies to parking spaces reserved for disabled persons, parking space surveillance is a complex and costly affair.

Example: ParkingProtect uses computer vision methods to identify when a parking violation has occurred. Once a violation is detected, a notification with a snapshot of the event is sent to parking space operators or authorities. By using ParkingProtect, surveillance cameras determine whether parking time restrictions are met or whether people leaving their car in a store's customer parking lot actually shop there. This helps retailers keep customer parking under control.

Learn more about and get ParkingProtect

Why wait? Take action now!

There are many ways to take Traffic Surveillance to the next level and make our Smart City Traffic safer & more free flowing using smart video technology. Just have a look around our Application Store, you'll find the right application for your use case.