Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision

US Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are using smart technology to warn civil engineers when something is wrong with the infrastructure, says the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Association (AASHTO). Sensors installed on bridges, in roadways, and on maintenance vehicles are communicating real-time performance and weather data, allowing engineers to solve problems before they occur. "Most people look at a road or a bridge and never realise the technology that today's modern tra

Digital camera manufacturer Basler has made changes to its management board to prepare the company for planned future growth, by the board to four members from 1 January 2014. On January 1, 2014, the management board will be expanded from three members to four members and the allocation of management board departments will be adjusted to future needs. Hardy Mehl, as CFO/COO, will lead the company together with the chairman of the board, Dr Dietmar Ley and management board members Arndt Bake and John Jen

The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) in Ontario, Canada, where collisions with wild animals cost the province more than US$95 million annually, has installed wildlife sensor and alert systems to reduce the number of animal-vehicle collisions on its highways. The MTO has installed two types of systems – one uses laser tripwires to detect animals and the other uses radar, an alternative that was found to address some of the challenges posed by laser systems. Neither system has yet been determined to be

Ecuador’s Municipal Public Transport Company of Guayaquil (EPMTG), which was created to manage traffic and pedestrian access routes in the Ecuadorian city, is to implement an intelligent transportation system (ITS) from January 2014. A traffic management centre will monitor the city’s 350,000 vehicles using cameras, photo radar, traffic signals and variable message signs. Around 1,500 intelligent traffic lights will be connected to 150 cameras. An international tender to implement the system was laun

Schneider Electric has been selected by the North East Texas Regional Mobility Authority (NETRMA) to install and operate its open road tolling (ORT) solution for Texas Toll Loop 49, acting as NETRMA’s tolling system integrator. Schneider Electric will install advanced tolling software and hardware including cameras, image capture and toll tag identification software and other maintenance equipment that will detect and classify vehicles at highway speeds. The system will enable travellers to pass through ga

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens Vegvesen) has to renovate 200 tunnels before 1 April 2019 to meet European Union safety requirements for tunnels. Norway’s Tunnel Safety Regulations 2007 apply to tunnels on state roads that are more than 500 metres long, of which Norway has 253. Thirty of these were built after 2007 and comply with the regulations, while only around twenty tunnels built after 2007 have been renovated. The authority will present an action program for the 2014-2017 period

The UK Home Office has introduced a new code of practice for the use of surveillance cameras in England and Wales which states that CCTV cameras should be used to protect and support people, not to spy on them. The code says “The purpose of the code will be to ensure that individuals and wider communities have confidence that surveillance cameras are deployed to protect and support them, rather than spy on them.” The Home Office developed the code “to address concerns over the potential for abuse or misuse

Industrial camera manufacturer Basler has presented its figures for the first half of 2013, showing an increase in orders of 16 per cent to US$45.5 million from US$38.4 million for the same period in 2012. The group's sales of US$43 million were 28 per cent above the previous year of US$33.7 million. Earnings before tax (EBT) rose by 77 per cent to US$5.2 million over 2012’s figure of US$ 2.9 million. "The robust incoming orders, the smooth introduction into the market of important new products, and the p