discussion / Camera Traps  / 10 May 2019

Speed camera: Help needed to get traffic data

I need to post challenge for a problem that seemingly should be easy but is turning out to be an Internet trawling nightmare.

For the purpose of data collection I need to identify a  system that will facilitate monitoring traffic on a  highway that runs through a wildlife conservation area, and roadkill not surprisingly is high. It might seem a simple request as we all know speed cameras are seemingly everywhere but clearly not readily available. The data I need to recall from this camera is simple. The date, the time, and photo of every vehicle.  This will facilitate us to be well advised on any road mitigation campaign. 

The camera will be mounted on a billboard, and would need to be solar powered , and able to store the data until downloaded ideally by Bluetooth. So far the closest I can find is Speedcam AI software http://www.raserabwehr.de/ but not seemingly a camera to go with it. I contacted them and they just said any camera which isn't very helpful :<(

I'm hoping there is a tech person in the group who will understand all the camera jargon and point us in the right direction.

This is of course a problem that all of us are having and if an affordable solution can be found it will benefit wildlife everywhere.

Regards

 

Dr Greg Rasmussen

Painted Dog Research trust.




Hi,

Their web page says "IP WIFI" or "USB webcam", meaning something like this or this (I'm not recommending any models in particular, those were just examples).  The USB webcams will need a short USB cable to connect to the computer, and this could mean you have to site the camera with the computer.  With the Wifi IP camera you can mount the camera so it has a good view, and the computer where it is easily accessible and protected (but still on the billboard).

Their web page also said they will have a Raspberry Pi version of their software out soon; this would be the cheapest, lowest power option.  It makes sense they don't sell the camera, they just do the software.  You'll have to provide the computer (Mac or Windows PC) too!

Thanks,

-harold

Hi Greg,

A raspberry pi is a small cheap computer, useful for projects like this.

I don't know of any cameras that come with a solar panel.  Typically the power system will be separate from the computer/camera.  One common setup consists of solar panel feeding a 12V lead battery via a charge controller, each of which components can be purchased separately off the shelf.  The computer etc. run directly off the 12V battery or charge controller.

I understand you're trying to estimate the traffic conditions.  To do this, there may be other ways than taking a time stamped photo of every vehicle, which entails detecting the vehicle first.  Perhaps just detecting it is enough?

May I ask how many lanes is the highway?  Are you interested in traffic in both directions or just 1?

Thanks.

It sounds like you'd be monitoring traffic 24/7 rather than detecting a car since car detection would add another layer of complexity as htarold mentioned. One of the biggest issues is of course power since the Raspberry Pi device (oh, with cream....yummm) consumes quite a bit of power, although less than a full blown laptop. One of the things to consider if you go that route is how to size the solar panels and battery to allow for the monitoring that you would need. Or perhaps define the time interval you'd like to take the images in and make sure the system can be powered and have enough memory to handle that. 

For example, if you want the system to survive 3 days and capture data, the approximate power consumption of a raspberry pi is 0.5A (~500 mA). 3 days is 72 hours. Multiplying them together gives you 36 Amp Hours at 5V or requiring at least a battery that can provide 180W-Hr.  For a standard 12V battery, this would be rated at 15-Hr, although I'd probably go with a 20 A-Hr battery to provide a bit more margin. Actually htarold works in robotics and can probably explain this much better than me :)

Hi,

Akiba outlined a general solution, which is powerwise much better (like 10x) than using a laptop or similar that would be required if you went with the Speedcam AI, and is more amenable to powering with a PV panel.

Looking at your particular requirements, I think there may be another way: a radar speed detector and a Canon camera running CHDK (CHDK is software that permits a Canon camera to be reprogrammed -- only for Canons).  This way you use a real camera to get high quality photos, and the camera will put it's own time stamp on the images.  The only trick is to find a suitable doppler radar to interface with.  With just 1 lane, there's less risk of photographing the wrong vehicle.  The event can be logged (with the speed) separately on an Arduino.

There's some issue with anonymising the images which I assume will be taken care of manually.

I've got plenty on my plate now, but let me see if I can get some people interested in looking into this.  It's an interesting problem that I'm sure others also have.

Thanks,

-harold