Xerox researchers take to the streets to take the pain out of congestion

October 23, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

In the US, Xerox researchers have taken to the streets in a bid to reduce traffic congestion. They’re using expertise in data analytics, control systems, sensing, imaging and video to create new transportation applications that help reduce congestion, increase safety on the road and take the pain out of finding a parking spot.

“Today you can find our scientists and ethnographic researchers standing on bridges and roads or camping out in city parking lots collecting data and observing driver behaviours,” said Sophie Vandebroek, 4186 Xerox’s chief technology officer and president of the Xerox Innovation Group. “Our expertise in imaging and human behaviour is now being applied to new areas such as analysing real-time data, including video of traffic and parking patterns, to help improve traffic safety, increase driver satisfaction, simplify a municipality’s infrastructure or make cities greener by decreasing traffic-related pollution.”

Xerox technology clearing the way for smoother travel includes: imaging technology for high occupancy toll (HOT and high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes; automatic licence plate recognition (ALPR); smart urban parking services, parking demand management services and public transportation systems.

“Adding intelligence to systems is how government and transportation agencies around the world can do more for less,” said Cees de Wijs, Xerox group president for International Transportation and Government. “At Xerox we are focusing our innovation to simplify the complexities of modern integrated transport, resulting in greater convenience, reliability and savings for users and governments and transportation agencies.” De Wijs is speaking on the topic this week at the 19th 6456 ITS World Congress on in Vienna, Austria.

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ITS World Congress

Xerox Licence Plate Recognition (XLPR) technology on show

Xerox is playing a leading part in the ITS World Congress this week through its presence in two executive, six special interest, and one technical session, as well as the company’s sponsorship of the VIP room. The company says it is using the event to underline its status as a global leader in business process and information technology services and the largest provider of mobility solutions to governments worldwide. As Xerox points out, for over 40 years it has worked together with transportation clients i

May 18, 2012

A natural fit

Xerox Chairman and CEO Ursula Burns will deliver the keynote address at today’s opening plenary in Fort Washington. Two years after leading the company’s $6.4Bn acquisition of ACS, Burns provides some insights into Xerox’s expanding role in the transportation sector.

April 4, 2014

Xerox launches passenger detection system for HOV/HOT lanes

Recognising that the benefits of high occupancy carpooling lanes are severely limited when motorists do not abide by the rules, Xerox has launched its vehicle passenger detection system, a HOV/HOT lane compliancy test system that uses Xerox video analytics to identify the number of occupants in a vehicle. Unlike competing solutions, the Xerox system identifies the number of occupants in a vehicle with better than 95 per cent accuracy at speeds ranging from stop-go traffic to 100 mph. Using patented vi

October 29, 2014

Xerox counts on machine vision for high occupancy enforcement

Machine vision techniques can provide solutions to some of the traffic planners most enduring problems With a high proportion of cars being occupied by the driver alone, one of the easiest, most environmentally friendly and cheapest methods of reducing congestion is to encourage more people to travel in each vehicle. So to persuade people to share rides, high occupancy lanes were devised to prioritise vehicles with (typically) three of more people on board and in some areas these vehicles are exempt from

Traffic Vision 2014 One of the installations in the Halifax trial

Traffic Vision 2014 passenger detection system

May 27, 2014

Xerox automates HOV/HOT enforcement

Counting the number of people in a vehicle has always been a manual task, but now Xerox has developed a real-time system to automate the process. Xerox has introduced an automated system that determines the number of passengers in a vehicle, enabling authorities to detect non-qualifying drivers using the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) and High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes. Traditionally HOV/HOT enforcement has entailed local police visually confirming each vehicle has the required number of occupants and chasin

Cameras for the passenger detection system

May 8, 2014

Xerox and University of Michigan partner on urban mobility

Xerox is to form a three-year partnership with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) to help shape the future of urban mobility across the country. The ultimate goal is to demonstrate how emerging automotive information-based systems and communications capabilities enable improved transaction-based business processes.