Skip to main content

Flir Taking the Heat

Flir is showcasing a new line of its FC-Series of thermal cameras that eliminate the problems associated with glare, darkness, vehicle headlights, shadows and wet pavement. The cameras replace legacy optical cameras and can be dropped in and used with existing traffic management infrastructure and software.
May 20, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Dan Dietrich FLIR Business Development Manager. "The thermal cameras eliminate the weather variable"
6778 FLIR is showcasing a new line of its FC-Series of thermal cameras that eliminate the problems associated with glare, darkness, vehicle headlights, shadows and wet pavement. The cameras replace legacy optical cameras and can be dropped in and used with existing traffic management infrastructure and software.

“The biggest problem with vehicle detection systems is always Mother Nature. Our thermal cameras eliminate the weather variable,” said Dan Dietrich, Business Development Manager for Flir.

Flir’s signal detection and ITS cameras detect the heat signatures of vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians and relay that information back to existing traffic management systems. The cameras are based on the company’s battlefield thermal imaging technology used by the U.S. military and are specifically tailored for transportation applications.

Flir tested the cameras in real-world transportation applications in the field before making them publically available, and because of their origin in battlefield conditions the cameras are extremely robust, including a weather-proofing casing and surge protection. They also come with a ten-year warranty on the detectors.

According to Dietrich, the cameras can be used for incident detection, traffic flow monitoring and vehicle counting. Launched last year, Flir FC-Series thermal cameras are deployed with more than 100 transportation agencies in nearly all 50 states.

www.flir.com/traffic

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Machine vision - cameras for intelligent traffic management
    January 25, 2012
    For some, machine vision is the coming technology. For others, it’s already here. Although it remains a relative newcomer to the ITS sector, its effects look set to be profound and far-reaching. Encapsulating in just a few short words the distinguishing features of complex technologies and their operating concepts can sometimes be difficult. Often, it is the most subtle of nuances which are both the most important and yet also the most easily lost. Happily, in the case of machine vision this isn’t the case:
  • Flir expands Marseille’s tunnel vision
    November 12, 2014
    Marseille’s city authority has added the monitoring of a second tunnel to the existing network with a new approach towards video management. Measuring 1.5km in length, the double-deck Prado Sud tunnel extends Marseille’s existing 2.5km Prado Carénage tunnel towards the southern part of the city. While it was logical to use a common control room and to use the latest detection and monitoring systems in the new tunnel, it was deemed too disruptive and costly to completely upgrade the existing tunnel.
  • Radar effective as detection tool for hard shoulder running
    July 23, 2012
    Navtech Radar's millimetric-wave systems are being researched on the M42 in England to look into how this type of detector can assist in the opening of the hard shoulder as an additional running lane. Here, the company's Stephen Clark talks about the technology being used. In England, the Highways Agency's (the HA, an executive agency of the Department for Transport) Managed Motorways system - formerly called Active Traffic Management - uses electronic signs and signals mounted on gantries to direct drivers
  • Remote remedies help US authorities identify bridge deficiencies
    September 6, 2017
    Every day 185 million vehicles – cars, trucks, school buses, emergency response units - cross one or more of America’s 55,710 'structurally compromised' steel and concrete road bridges, the highest concentration of which are in Iowa (nearly 5,000), Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. Nearly 2,000 of these crossings are located on interstate highways, according to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association's recent analysis of the US Department of Transportation's 2016 National Bridge Inventory.