Talking about digital intelligent road monitoring system

    Road monitoring systems have always been one of the hottest topics in the security industry. With the rising trend of intelligent integration, road monitoring around the world will gradually move from analog to digital. Although road monitoring and license plate recognition systems are quite mature and there are many manufacturers working in this field, becoming a leader, achieving excellent image quality, and integrating various systems to build a complete road monitoring solution are still challenging the wisdom and technology of various manufacturers. What are the characteristics of road monitoring? As an indispensable part of smart and safe cities, how security manufacturers can master the key and tricks of road monitoring will continue to be a hot topic in the security industry in the next few years.

    Challenges of road monitoring and license plate recognition systems

    What issues should be paid attention to in road monitoring and license plate recognition systems? This article explains through the external challenges and human challenges at the scene.

    External challenges of the case site: light and climate

    The characteristics of road monitoring sites are different from those of general indoor sites or even outdoor sites. Since it is necessary to provide 24-hour uninterrupted road monitoring images, the camera must overcome strong light changes, from the bright sunshine during the day to the ultra-low illumination at night, to maintain a clear picture so that the system can recognize various license plates and achieve the purpose of road safety control. Therefore, the camera must be equipped with excellent photosensitive technology components or long-range infrared lights (IRLED) to make up for the lack of natural light sources at night and overcome problems such as coarse noise particles. In addition to day and night switching, certain environmental conditions may also have excessive light contrast, causing the subject to be too dark and difficult to distinguish, such as at the entrance of a tunnel, or at night when the car body cannot be seen clearly due to the illumination of car lights. If the camera is not equipped with excellent hardware wide dynamic technology (WDR) or high light suppression technology (High Light Suppression), it will be more difficult to obtain a clear picture. In addition, unpredictable weather factors such as strong winds, heavy rain, snow or dense fog will affect the operation of the camera. Therefore, how to continuously enhance the hardware specifications of cameras or pass various certification standards to cope with ever-changing scenarios so that they can complete all-weather monitoring, the hardware conditions of various security control manufacturers will inevitably continue to be pushed forward.

    Human challenges at the scene - vehicle speed and license plate

    In addition, road monitoring also faces another uncontrollable factor - the speed of vehicles. Even on ordinary roads, the speed difference can often reach 30 kilometers or even 40 kilometers depending on different driving habits; and when the speed is too fast, there will often be a problem of ghosting. Therefore, the shutter speed and frame rate of the camera must keep up with the rapid movement of the vehicle in order to grasp the details of the vehicle and the license plate number, and then let the recognition system recognize it. In addition to the difficulty in controlling the speed of the vehicle, the inconsistency of the license plate is also a headache for various monitoring manufacturers. Whether it is the different number of English letters or the various combinations of different arrangements, it increases the burden of the recognition system; what's worse, many drivers fail to maintain the cleanliness of the license plate, and there are often stains covering the number or damage, which makes it difficult to recognize. Therefore, under the combination of various harsh conditions, the threshold of road monitoring and license plate recognition is more challenging than that of general cases.

    Road Monitoring Product Selection Considerations

    How can consumers choose the most suitable product among the dazzling array of road monitoring cameras and systems, and what details and issues should they pay attention to when selecting? The following are some key points summarized for consumers.

    Establish correct concepts for consumers

    Choosing a suitable road monitoring system starts with establishing a correct usage concept. The user must be clear about the purpose of building a road monitoring system at the site. For example: Is the main vehicle on this road a truck or a passenger car? If the vehicle is mainly a truck, the height and focus direction of the camera must be higher than that of a general passenger car in order to accurately identify the license plate number; if it is mainly a passenger car, the installation conditions are the opposite. For another example, the purpose of monitoring is to take photos of vehicles speeding or control traffic accidents? If it is to take photos of vehicles speeding, the camera lens will not be mainly wide-angle, and the range of the monitoring lane may be reduced to one or two lanes, or even only the inner lane, in order to ensure that the camera can provide a clear picture to enable the system to identify the license plate number when driving at high speed; if the purpose of monitoring is to control the progress and disaster of traffic accidents, the camera lens must use a wide-angle lens to obtain more details of the accident on the scene, which is conducive to the relevant units to carry out subsequent matters, such as the regulation of the accident blockade range or lane allocation. Although road surveillance system technology is becoming increasingly mature, there is still no perfect system that can meet all different needs. Therefore, before setting up a surveillance system, users and system integrators need to have clear communication and understand the needs of the owner. In response to different needs, system integrators can customize camera installation and parameter settings for the site, so as to provide the best security quality and achieve the purpose of monitoring.

    Optimize monitoring system stability

    Given the uniqueness of road monitoring cases, the primary requirement of users for cameras and monitoring systems is high stability. The so-called high stability means that within a given speed range, even in the face of many unfavorable external conditions, the camera must still provide a certain degree of clear image quality so that the recognition system can achieve a certain accuracy rate. For example, in the daytime and cloudless conditions, the license plate recognition rate should reach more than 95%; if it is cloudy or in the evening, or even at night, with the use of camera infrared lights, the recognition rate should also be maintained at around 90%. Only by optimizing the stability of the monitoring system can the integrity of road monitoring be ensured. Many world security control manufacturers have successively released cameras for road monitoring applications. For example, a major manufacturer has launched a starlight-level auxiliary bayonet camera, which uses industrial-grade or military-grade electronic components to improve the reliability and stability of the system, and also prolong the life of the camera. The manufacturer not only puts a lot of effort into electronic components, but also builds in ISP image algorithms for the camera, and uses CMOS top-level image sensors to improve the color reproduction of the picture and make the image more thorough. Combined with the constant fill light, the objects and features in the image can be perfectly presented, greatly improving the security quality and monitoring effect.

    Improve monitoring system integration

    A complete road monitoring system is composed of many elements, including the front-end camera that collects high-definition images, the back-end comparison and recognition system for license plate recognition, and even the combination of other technologies such as GIS system or POS system, in order to achieve a complete monitoring system. Not only can it grasp the real-time traffic information dynamics, but it can also provide more information for accidents, helping to track down and handle cases more efficiently. When the integration of the monitoring system is limited, the systems of various companies are incompatible with each other. Even the most technologically advanced cameras will still cause buyers to encounter many troubles in use, and the search work cannot be completed smoothly, which will greatly reduce the efficiency of traffic safety monitoring. Therefore, major security control manufacturers pay more and more attention to the improvement of integration capabilities, hoping to achieve perfect connection in every link of security monitoring. Recently, a world-renowned security control manufacturer launched the latest generation of real-time traffic monitoring license plate recognition network cameras, and simultaneously integrated the Overseer license plate recognition software developed by the world-renowned software manufacturer VIT to provide accurate license plate recognition information. At present, in the security industry, relevant standard protocols have also been formulated to help manufacturers build large-scale integrated management platforms and achieve standardization. Standard interchange protocols such as the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA), Open Network Video Interface Forum (ONVIF), or HDCCTV can be used to integrate urban road monitoring, neighborhood monitoring, and even highway or expressway monitoring on the same management and operation platform with a software management platform that partially or fully complies with the standards.

    Enhance adaptability to multiple scenarios

    The uncertainty of multiple road monitoring cases often affects the recognition rate. In order to adapt to various conditions, security companies not only need to continuously improve algorithms, but also need to accumulate professional knowledge and rich experience to adjust parameters in order to provide users with the most suitable scene settings. Therefore, when choosing a monitoring system, it is necessary to examine the environmental adaptability of the camera. In addition to the factory preset parameter adjustments, whether the camera has the ability to learn and can adjust its own parameters according to the environmental changes of the actual case to meet the needs of special fields. For example, a world-renowned security control manufacturer has developed the industry-leading intelligent technology i-Mode. Professional technicians conduct field surveys at various cases, collect environmental variables, and then adjust parameters according to the characteristics of each case, and store them in multiple mode settings, such as elevator mode, indoor mode, license plate recognition mode, etc. The built-in diverse modes of the camera can cover almost more than 90% of the cases. Therefore, users can easily choose the appropriate camera mode according to the needs of their own cases. What is even more amazing is that the company's cameras also have a "SmartAuto" technology, which has machine learning capabilities and can automatically adjust parameters to achieve the most appropriate settings for different types of environmental changes to meet the conditions of specific cases. Therefore, in the selection of multi-environment adaptability, this type of camera can be listed as the first consideration.

    Field test comparison

    In fact, no matter how much ink and words are spent on touting the product, it is most practical to test it on site. After all, the standards of "excellent monitoring quality" recognized by buyers and sellers are not exactly the same, and disputes or customer complaints are often caused by the gap in cognition. Therefore, it is more secure for both parties to test on site at the same time, and it can also avoid unnecessary disturbances. If there are problems during the installation, they can also report to the manufacturer immediately. As the saying goes: seeing is believing, and users do not want to watch untrue promotional videos and make purchases without confirmation and become a sucker. Good products can withstand the challenge of on-site verification. Instead of imagining and speculating the effects that may be achieved after installation, it is better to simulate the actual installation situation based on the characteristics of the site and conduct long-term testing. For example, taking a site with many changes as an example, it is recommended that the installation schedule can be extended to one to two weeks; too short an installation schedule may not be able to collect enough reference variables, and in the case of too few samples, it will be unfavorable for manufacturers to help adjust the best photography mode. When manufacturers conduct actual site surveys, they will have a better grasp of the camera's installation location, angle, configuration, and even whether light source assistance is needed. It is precisely because of field testing that the true quality of the camera and the acceptance manufacturer's problem-solving ability and service attitude can be better highlighted.

    For example, a world-renowned security manufacturer has tailored a complete road monitoring system for a city in Taiwan. In order to more actively strengthen road safety and prevent crises, the city has adopted 4,000 network cameras from this manufacturer. Its perfect day and night high-definition image quality is not only cost-effective, but also professional personnel provide comprehensive maintenance services; during field testing, the excellent sensor components and enhanced wide dynamic technology allow the camera to transmit FullHD excellent images even in the middle of the night or under strong backlight, which is obviously better than other competing products and shines brightly.

    Supervise on-site construction quality

    The on-site construction of security control systems is often an important link that is overlooked by users, but the quality of the construction site is the key to the accuracy of the monitoring system. Before on-site construction, manufacturers must first evaluate the limitations and conditions of the installation environment, propose a complete construction plan, and then cooperate with the construction team to confirm the installation details. Different cameras have different characteristics, and many devices must be installed with special care. If the team does not understand the characteristics of the product, excessive shaking or collision may affect the original focus of the camera, resulting in the inability to maintain good monitoring quality in subsequent actual operations. The old workers who have been running around in many cases also said that good manufacturers will provide many valuable suggestions during the construction process; when installing cameras on the case site, if you encounter unfamiliar new workers, they often cannot quickly master the installation tips. The most common problem is that the camera cannot focus correctly. The other is that the camera is not installed in the right position, resulting in incomplete picture capture or related accessories cannot be assembled smoothly, which reduces the overall performance of the camera, which makes the owner very worried. Therefore, it is necessary for system manufacturers to supervise on-site construction together with owners. Otherwise, if you purchase the best camera but it cannot play the greatest role in protecting the safety of the case site due to errors in on-site construction, wouldn’t that be a complete failure? Therefore, ensuring good construction quality is the beginning of ensuring a complete security monitoring system.

    Conclusion

    As the topic of intelligent integration continues to be hotly discussed, the ever-changing technology also supports the continuous growth and maturity of the security industry. Road monitoring systems around the world are bound to move from analog to digital monitoring. At this stage, the market demand for road monitoring is still growing. With the continued rapid growth in the number of motorcycles and cars, the problems of traffic accidents and road congestion are also growing rapidly. A complete intelligent transportation system plays an indispensable role in solving traffic cases and improving the resolution rate of traffic bottlenecks. Both private and public institutions are paying more and more attention to related issues. Although many manufacturers want to join the road monitoring market, making this field seem to be highly competitive, the technical threshold of road monitoring is relatively difficult. Without sufficient technical foundation and professional support, it is believed that it will be quickly eliminated by competitors. Therefore, if security control manufacturers want to gain a foothold in the road monitoring market, in addition to the above-mentioned system stability, integration and adaptability to multiple scenarios, they must also combine intelligent image analysis systems with other intelligent technologies such as GIS technology and POS systems to strengthen the various functions of road monitoring and provide a more comprehensive digital road safety network. Manufacturers need to increase the strength of their products, not only to make passers-by feel more at ease, but also to assist limited road police forces and provide more assistance at critical moments.