Skip to main content

UK cities trial pollution-measuring lasers

A new system that combines laser-based remote sensing and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) is being trialled in London and Birmingham in a bid to catch polluting cars. Developed by Hager Environmental and Atmospheric Technologies (HEAT), the emissions detecting and reporting system (EDAR) remotely detects and measures infrared absorption of environmentally critical gases coming out of a moving vehicle. The technology is combined with still/scene camera technology and an ANPR camera, which al
February 16, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
A new system that combines laser-based remote sensing and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) is being trialled in London and Birmingham in a bid to catch polluting cars.

Developed by Hager Environmental and Atmospheric Technologies (HEAT), the emissions detecting and reporting system (EDAR) remotely detects and measures infrared absorption of environmentally critical gases coming out of a moving vehicle.

The technology is combined with still/scene camera technology and an ANPR camera, which allows for the capture of not only a 2D image of the vehicle for vehicle profiling as it passes below the EDAR unit, but also a 3D multi spectral image of the entire exhaust plume and the identification of the subject vehicle.  

The company claims that EDAR’s valid read accuracy rate on a multi-lane state highway during heavy rush hour traffic is over 86 per cent and increases to 95 per cent on single-lane highway applications.  ‘Invalid reads’ are said to be typically due to situational exhaust plume interference or inadequate vehicle specific power.

Related Content

  • Daimler’s double take sees machine vision move in-vehicle
    December 13, 2013
    Jason Barnes looks at Daimler’s Intelligent Drive programme to consider how machine vision has advanced the state of the art of vision-based in-vehicle systems. Traditionally, radar was the in-vehicle Driver Assistance System (DAS) technology of choice, particularly for applications such as adaptive cruise control and pre-crash warning generation. Although vision-based technology has made greater inroads more recently, it is not a case of ‘one sensor wins’. Radar and vision are complementary and redundancy
  • Electronic vehicle registration ensures payment
    February 2, 2012
    Like most countries, Bermuda recognised that it was losing revenue through non-compliance with vehicle registration regulations and was equally concerned about vehicles that were not properly insured or put through annual inspections. Indeed, the tiny island state, with a population of around 65,000 people and some 30,000 vehicles, estimated it was losing more than US$1.4 million per year in tax-based revenue since approximately 8 per cent of vehicle owners were cheating the system.
  • Jenoptik Vector P2P receives NMi approval in Netherlands
    August 23, 2018
    Jenoptik’s Vector P2P, an average speed point-to-point (P2P) enforcement system, can be used in the Netherlands following approval from the Dutch National Institute of Metrology (NMi). Vector P2P is based around the SPECS average speed measuring cameras used in the UK and will also be made available in other European and international jurisdictions which accept certification from the NMi. The system utilises the Vector2 camera platform to help it enable up to three lanes of image and automatic number
  • Jenoptik Vector P2P receives NMi approval
    October 15, 2018
    Jenoptik’s Vector P2P, an average speed point-to-point (P2P) enforcement system, can be used in the Netherlands following approval from the Dutch National Institute of Metrology (NMi). Vector P2P is based around the SPECS average speed measuring cameras used in the UK and will also be made available in other European and international jurisdictions which accept certification from the NMi. The system utilises the Vector2 camera platform to help it enable up to three lanes of image and automatic number