Skip to main content

CMOS cameras used to create video pedestrian crossing

The city of Cologne, Germany has installed two CMOS-camera based video pedestrian light systems that will recognise waiting pedestrians and extend the green phase if there are still people crossing after the standard time allocation. The system, implemented by Siemens, uses two Flir cameras. The safe walk camera observes the waiting area. A stereo camera with two CMOS 1/3-inch mono sensors and 3 mm lenses is mounted 3.5 metres above the ground to cover an area of 12 sq m. This camera is set to recognise on
June 11, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
The city of Cologne, Germany has installed two CMOS-camera based video pedestrian light systems that will recognise waiting pedestrians and extend the green phase if there are still people crossing after the standard time allocation.

The system, implemented by 189 Siemens, uses two 6778 FLIR cameras. The safe walk camera observes the waiting area.  A stereo camera with two CMOS 1/3-inch mono sensors and 3 mm lenses is mounted 3.5 metres above the ground to cover an area of 12 sq m. This camera is set to recognise only objects with a height above 50 cm in order to eliminate shading and other distractions on the pavement.

C-walk – the second video system – uses a colour CMOS camera and recognises when not all pedestrians can cross in the minimum green period and sends a signal to the Siemens control unit in order to extend the green phase.

According to an article in Novus Light, the algorithms of the system also recognise the moving direction of pedestrians and can recognise those who only pass through the detection area. In this way, only people waiting at the light trigger a signal to the control unit of the pedestrian light, which, depending on the programming, starts a green phase at certain points in the current phase.

Dr Christoph Roth, product manager in the Road and City Mobility department at the Siemens Infrastructure and Cities Sector, says CMOS sensors were chosen because in traffic detection applications, they deliver more reliable images than CCD sensors and have a higher resistance to blooming from auto headlights at night.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Green wave for Reykjavik traffic
    October 11, 2016
    Siemens is supplying its satellite-based prioritisation system Sitraffic Stream (Simple Tracking Realtime Application for Managing traffic lights and passenger information) to the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik. The system ensures that traffic lights automatically turn green for emergency and urban public transport vehicles at road intersections and has initially been installed at six selected intersections in the city centre in cooperation with local sales partner Smith & Norland. Over the next few months
  • Urban tunnel replaces viaduct, improves safety
    October 10, 2012
    Earthquake sensors, automatic barriers and real time monitoring systems are all part of a scheme to make a major Seattle traffic artery safer, by taking it underground. Huw Williams reports. Seattle’s metropolitan area of 3.5 million people, like much of the western seaboard of the United States, lies in an earthquake zone. In Seattle’s case, the city and its hinterland sit atop a complex network of interrelated active geological faults capable of severe seismic activity and posing complex considerations fo
  • Q-Free sees logic in video tolling
    September 15, 2014
    Q-Free’s Frank Kjelsli talks to Colin Sowman about why video tolling could be the boost to efficiency and interoperability the industry is seeking. Like it or not, the principal of one person, one tolling account is likely to become a reality: be that in America with the 2016 interoperability deadline or the European EETS requirement. Multi-tag readers are being introduced and alliances are being formed to meet legislative requirements but as the debate continues about which systems and protocols to adopt,
  • New legal basis brings EU wide cross border enforcement
    February 25, 2015
    Pan-EU enforcement is set to become a reality after legislation is revised. In May 2014 the European Court of Justice ruled that European Directive 2011/82/EU, which came into force in November 2013 to facilitate the exchange of information between member states in relation to eight road traffic offences, had been set up on an incorrect legal basis. The regulations had been introduced under police cooperation rules on the prevention of crime, but the Court decided that the measures in the Directive do not c