Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision

Innovative parking initiatives on the US Pacific Coast. David Crawford reviews. Californian cities are leading the way in trialling new solutions to their endemic parking problems. According to Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at the University of California in Los Angeles, drivers looking for available spots can cause up to 74% of traffic congestion in downtown areas. One solution is variable, demand-responsive pricing of parking.

Iteris has announced it has shipped its first orders of Vantage Vector, the new flagship sensor of the Vantage vehicle detection family. The company says the Vector is the industry's first vehicle detection sensor that combines video and radar technologies to provide a broader range of detection functions. Building on the proven benefits of video-based vehicle detection, Iteris says Vector's extended detection range enables important advances in intersection safety and data collection.

Econolite has announced that in just three years, it has reached a major industry milestone with an order for the 100th Centracs Advanced Transportation Management System (ATMS). To be installed in Georgia, the software system will be deployed as part of the city of Johns Creek’s ITS master plan that provides the vision and strategy for the future development of the city’s traffic operations.

Chile's Public Transport Minister, Pedro Pablo Errazuriz, has announced that the government is looking to replicate the successful speed camera system that is used in France. The system captures photos of speeding cars and then sends out letters to offenders, issuing them with a fine within two days of the offence. This has enabled France to dramatically improve the safety of its roads, reducing the number of road deaths from an average of 8,000 per year in 2003 to an estimated 4,000 in 2012. The cameras ar

Image Sensing Systems has announced that Mark S. Phillips has been appointed as the company's business development manager of CitySync automatic licence plate recognition (ALPR) products for North and South America, reporting to Dan Skites, company VP of sales and marketing. Phillips joins the company from Federal APD, parking – access control and revenue management systems, where he was a regional sales manager of the Southwestern District.

Kapsch TrafficCom has been awarded the Intertraffic Innovation Award in the Safety category for its new tunnel safety product Automatic Camera Calibration (ACC) at Intertraffic Amsterdam. The new tunnel safety product, ACC, beat numerous other entries to win by virtue of its extraordinary speed, precision, cost-efficient and the unambiguous safety aspect.

According to independent research conducted by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), products powered by TomTom’s HD Traffic reduce average drive times by 13 per cent and up to 30 per cent in congested areas. HD Traffic is the company’s real-time traffic technology and is used in products ranging from portable navigation devices (PNDs), smartphones, automobile infotainment systems, and government traffic management centres. In addition to reduced commute times, the study showed that TomTom outperforms the comp

Magellan, a leading GPS brand, has been named an International CES Innovations 2012 Design and Engineering Award Honouree for its Wireless Back-up Camera. that attaches to the vehicle's rear license plate and transmits images directly to one of several 7" Magellan GPS models transforming the display into a rear view monitor. When the car is put into reverse, the Magellan navigator will automatically switch from navigation mode to rear view mode, enabling drivers to view what is behind their car. The back-up

Canada-headquartered advanced digital imaging products specialist Point Grey has announced the appointment of ClearView Imaging as its exclusive distributor in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The city council of Sant Cugat del Vallés in Spain last week inaugurated a revolutionary smart city project to improve the mobility, sustainability and life of the citizens of this town, which is located next to the city of Barcelona.