Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Smart Traffic Cameras

Traffic Cameras Get Smart

Proxim Wireless today announced that the state of Bolivar, Venezuela has deployed a large, integrated public safety network in Bolivar City using their wireless technology. The network, which connects both state and local police, the National Guard, state transportation and public safety agencies, utilizes Proxim’s Tsunami QuickBridge.11 radios to create a wireless video surveillance network.



The wireless network incorporates closed circuit television (CCTV), digital telephony via Voice over IP (VoIP), fleet management, call management, video conferencing, emergency call management, and fire detection and access control systems. The end result is a fully-integrated public safety network that enables all connected organizations to monitor streaming video surveillance footage throughout Bolivar City, manage all incoming emergency calls, and automatically deploy emergency vehicles and services.



Phase One of this deployment has been up and running successfully since May 2009, and is currently backhauling 18 Pelco video surveillance cameras streaming video from six different locations. The deployment is currently being expanded to cover 10 additional sites with 30 more cameras throughout the city. The Tsunami QuickBridge.11 series operates in the 2.4 GHz, 4.9 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands.

“The Emergency Bolivar 1-7-1 network has been a huge success, and is a critical component in our ongoing efforts to serve and protect the people of Bolivar,” said Carlos Arias Delgado, director of emergency services.



In related news, a new generation of traffic signal technology is being installed in the city of Vancouver, Washington. Their system aims to reduce wait times at stoplights.

Traffic signals previously worked according to preset cycles. The video-detection technology, installed by the transportation department, aims to enhance traffic on gridlocked streets without spending big bucks on new highways.


Video detection slices intersections into zones — turn lanes, through lanes, entrances, exits — and watches what’s going on in each of them. It uses that data to make real-time decisions about which zone needs which signal when.

It can shorten wait times, skip or prolong signals, even back up to serve that one lonely car idling in a left-turn lane with nobody else around.

Contractor DKS led a multi-agency coordination effort that integrated the needs of all stakeholders in the region, including WSDOT, ODOT and the City of Portland. Stimulus money will upgrade the signals at an estimated $1.3 million, with $900,000 coming from a federal economic stimulus grant.




Dr. Robert Bertini, now with the Obama administration, developed a research program, laboratory, and graduate curriculum in Intelligent Transportation Systems at Portland State University that brought together data from the TriMet transit agency, as well as state and local transportation departments.

In other transportation news, Ford’s latest Sync system, with an interface dubbed “MyFord Touch,” will add a screen in the dashboard and work with mobile phone applications — for example, by reading aloud the latest posts from the people the driver follows on Twitter. Unveiled Jan. 7 at CES in Las Vegas, Sync uses technology from Seattle-based companies including Microsoft, Seattle-based Airbiquity, Kirkland-based Inrix and Bellevue-based Bsquare.

The North American market for basic systems that integrate and control mobile devices inside cars is estimated to be $2.8 billion this year, according to research firm iSuppli of El Segundo, Calif. That doesn’t include aftermarket systems, and it’s up from the firm’s estimate of $1.5 billion for North America two years ago.


An estimated 55 million global consumers will have Internet access in their cars by 2016, up from a mere 860,000 at the end of 2009, according to iSuppli Corp.

source : dailywireless.org

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