Skin-detecting CCTV keeps an eye on motorists

A company that has developed a CCTV system which counts people in cars by detecting human skin claims the London Congestion Charge could benefit from the technology.

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Vehicle Occupancy, a company spun out of research at Loughborough University, has pioneered an infrared CCTV system known as dtech that scans car windscreens and determines how many people are in the vehicle by detecting human skin and counting faces.

It is now touting a commercial application of the tech that can be used for policing high occupancy vehicle lanes - roads where cars must have more than one occupant in them - and therefore cutting congestion.

Leeds City Council is reported to be interested in testing the technology on its car-pool lanes.

Professor John Tyrer, professor of optical instrumentation at Loughborough University, said single occupant cars are the main cause of congestion and argued that more intelligent schemes than London's Congestion Charge - which polices vehicles rather than occupants - are needed to create effective congestion-cutting schemes.

He told silicon.com: "At the moment the Congestion Charge in London is not at all successful - the average speed in that zone has gone down since the charge was introduced. It's changed the demographic distribution slightly but the net result is it's not made a big deal of difference. And it's not seen by the people in there as actually anything other than a flat tax.

"So if you charge a single occupant car but you don't charge multiple occupant cars you've then got a logic which says I've got to change my behaviour because I can begin to see the reason behind this."

Vehicle Occupancy has conducted extensive trials of the technology during the five years it has been developing dtech - including utilising the Mallory Park Motor Racing Circuit near Leicester.

Tyrer explained: "We're able to position people in different configurations in the car and then go round and round and round at different speeds - it's very, very controlled conditions. We're able to map everything and look at the repeatability."

The dtech cameras are elevated so they have a three-quarter vantage point of vehicles on the road and are therefore able to get a view of any front and rear passengers, said Tyrer - who added the technology is "very" accurate.

He said many UK councils have shown interest in using dtech to police vehicle occupancy, adding it is already in use "all over the world".

dtech has additional applications beyond policing congestion, according to Tyrer, who said as well as car parking and tolling the tech can be used for people auditing, survey work and border crossing.