The system combines a low-cost camera with a sophisticated algorithm running on a low-cost processing platform. It is able to calculate which parking spaces are occupied or empty – without the disruption or expense of digging up roads and car parks to install individual sensors and communications for each parking bay.
“Our unique smart system uses machine vision to establish whether each space is free or occupied – with no need for expensive infrastructure,” said Dipak Raval, a commercial director at Cambridge Consultants. “It’s an excellent example of how machine vision can provide a cost-effective way of monitoring occupancy over a wide area, since the camera is able to ‘see’ multiple bays.
“Our deep expertise in algorithm development has enabled us to ensure the technology works in a variety of lighting conditions and can cope with different sizes of cars, trucks and motorcycles – without giving misleading results if pedestrians are standing in a parking space, for example, or shopping trolleys are left behind.”
The new smart system is enabled by Analog Devices’ Blackfin Low Power Imaging Platform (BLIP) – a low-cost, low-power embedded computer vision platform targeting an array of real-time sensing applications.
Michael Murray, general manager of industrial IoT and sensing at Analog Devices, said: “The BLIP platform allows Analog Devices to make significant contributions in emerging Internet of Things spaces such as smart buildings and cities, where this is a radical shift from passive to real-time intelligent sensing nodes.
“Cambridge Consultants’ expertise in complex algorithm development allowed us to algorithmically enable BLIP for an application space that would create a unique solution to relieve a major source of frustration for drivers everywhere.”
