Smarter Traffic Monitoring with Intelligent Cameras

In the current world, we require a smart traffic control system to manage traffic effectively where vehicles are increasing rapidly. The foremost constraint of all is time. Security and authenticity of the vehicle are also important. On average, a vehicle waits for 10 minutes at a toll booth due to the queue for the toll collection. National Authority of India proposes different solutions to optimize the issue and to ease the traffic at the toll booth.

Already National Highway Authority of India has introduced the electronic toll collection system, the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader at the toll booth reads the RFID tag in the car as every car having a unique RFID number. The RFID number gives the information of the vehicle number and FASTag of the owner. The toll amount is automatically deducted from the bank account which is linked to the FASTag already. Thus basically the vehicles not have to stop at the toll booth and move to a lane with the least traffic which results in a great save of time.

Now, NHAI has planned to introduce surveillance cameras to control the traffic congestions. For diversion of traffic, each lane ahead had a camera with an image processing technique which senses the traffic density at the lanes. The data is processed in a central system which calculates the lane number with least traffic density and displays it to the traffic. Now the vehicles have to pass through the lane which is shown on the display so that they pass through a lane with the least traffic density and the congestion is controlled.

So, to remotely monitor the highway traffic and ensure overall security, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to integrate IP solutions which would collect the real-time video feed of the traffic on the National Highways and transfers those data from the highway to the control room of regional offices. Mr Akhilesh Srivastava CGM (IT & Highway Operations) NHAI said that surveillance cameras will provide pulse feedback to the control rooms in regular interval and when the queuing starts it will start streaming videos with alarm and alerts as per escalation matrix.

NHAI says that these surveillance cameras enable to recognise the Licence plate of the vehicle, this feature allows the camera to capture the license plate number which is then compared to the database to detect the vehicle and the driver. These traffic cameras are the most innovative forms of usage of video surveillance technology.

License plate recognition, or LPR, is an incredibly useful software feature that allows you to track traffic, find stolen vehicles, and much more. The surveillance camera which is enabled with LPR software, captures video of the license plate numbers and then either stores it for later use, or compares it to an existing database. To search for the license plates of stolen vehicles or suspected cars in other crimes, police and other law officials can review local traffic videos. The installation of this type of intelligent cameras helps to provide safety to the highway commuters on the National Highways.

This method helps in avoiding identity theft and getting back stolen vehicles. This system has never before been implemented and has a high chance of success. In this age of advanced technology, our toll booths are in desperate need of an upgrade and this method hopes to do the same. So NHAI is introducing the smart surveillance cameras for the 10 toll plazas for the pilot project and the gradually bring another 200 Toll Plaza under the intelligent cameras for better traffic control.

#LicensePlateRecognition #VideoSurveillance #TollPlaza

I like writing articles related to current trending topics that create general awareness and also I write articles related to career that helps students to build their career.