1a

• Technology-driven innovation (under the influence of the development of science – the market is not ready for the product)
• Market-driven innovation (as a result of market surveys, the market expects the product)
• Replacement of existing product
• Product related to cost reduction
• Radical new product
• Other, what…

The innovation potential of this product is related both to technology-driven and market-driven innovation.

On one side, Eye-Tech staff has developed  know how and research experience in surveillance systems within the Artificial Vision and Real-Time Systems (AVIRES) Laboratory (Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Udine).

On the other side, there is the need for traffic surveillance under all conditions. Safety of vehicles transiting in traffic areas represents a problem to be considered with attention by transport managers.  This objective leads to improve the research in more advanced video-based vehicle detection systems.
According to the article “Road-traffic monitoring by knowledge-driven static and dynamic

image analysis”, written by Antonio Fernandez-Caballero, Francisco J. Gomez, Juan Lopez-Lopez, the most attractive automatic mechanisms capable of providing information about the behavior of automobiles on highways and city roads, is video image detection.

Video image detection entails the gathering of data which describes the characteristics of the vehicles and their motion. Some examples of such data are the number of vehicles, the speed of the vehicles, vehicle’s size, vehicle’s length, type of vehicle (car, van, truck or bus). This information is useful because it is a back up tool for law enforcement agencies. It is also possible to detect situations of traffic congestion and incidents after locating traffic jams or accidents. Lastly, it would be of great help to be able to increase the capacity of the road-traffic network from the general road information network and guide traffic towards less congested roads.

1b

The added value for the end-user is the higher quality and better technical characteristics of the product.

The application of image processing and computer vision techniques to the analysis of video sequences of traffic flow offer considerable improvements over the existing methods  of traffic data collection and road traffic monitoring. Video sensors have become particularly important in traffic applications mainly due to their fast response, easy installation, operation and maintenance, and their ability to monitor wide areas. Other methods including inductive loops, sonar and microwave detectors, suffer from serious drawbacks: they are expensive to install and maintain and they are unable to detect slow or stationary vehicles.

Among several traffic surveillance tools, the present result involves the use of static cameras observing a dynamic road scene for the purpose of traffic monitoring and surveillance. Cameras are placed on posts above the ground to obtain optimal view of the road and the passing vehicles.

1c

A traffic monitoring and surveillance system to observe dynamic road scenes with the use of static cameras.

2a

National ¨

European ¨

Global þ

Please describe the characteristics of your target market.

The product is targeted for a global market.

The system is directed to public administration bodies (Municipalities, Provinces, Regions) and to public companies and concessionaires for motorway construction and management and for related transport services. In Italy, for example, there are 24 concessionaires for the motorways management.

2b

• Base – applied by all companies in the industry

• Leading – applied by a single or limited number of competitive companies

• Key –at a development stage, but has already proven its potential

The product can be considered as “leading”.

Other companies produce video-based traffic monitoring systems but, compared with other kinds of systems, the present one meets several important requirements. For example, in order to improve the robustness of detection and reduce false detection rates, tracking is employed.

Thanks to the tracking system, individual vehicles are identified as unique targets. In this way, the system can yield traditional traffic parameters such as traffic flow and velocity but also new parameters such as lane changes and vehicle trajectories (useful for the incident detection).

2c

• Existing demand – the market is already developed

• hidden (latent) demand – the market has yet to be developed

On streets and roadways around the world, video cameras give traffic managers a real-time view of vehicular activity. When traffic slows down, the images help personnel assess the cause and decide how to respond. And when those images are distributed to the public over the Internet, they also may help travelers decide which routes to take.

Using machine-vision technology, video traffic-detection systems count vehicles, measure their speed, determine when traffic has stopped and sense when vehicles are lined up at red lights.

Transportation departments use data extracted from such video feeds to control traffic signals, monitor traffic on highways, detect incidents and collect traffic statistics for planning purposes, among other applications.

Video detection systems offer an alternative to the in-ground sensors that transportation departments have deployed for many years. Most of those older systems use inductive loops or magnetometers, devices that are embedded in the road surface and sense the presence of vehicles above them.

The video-based systems are non-intrusive. The cameras and their processing cards are installed at the roadside, so they don’t require making cuts in the road bed.

2d

• Implementation, implementation in production (leading to a radically new product offers)

• Growth (rapid spread within the industry or outside it)

• maturity (parameters of the technical characteristics of manufactured products reached their maximum, higher-grade products can be manufactured on the basis of technological substitution)

The current stage of the product’s market life cycle is Growth.

According to Guillaume Leduc in “Road Traffic Data: Collection Methods and Applications”, the development of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) requires high quality traffic information in real-time. For several years, under growing pressure for improving traffic management, collecting traffic data methods have been evolving considerably and the access to real-time traffic information is becoming routine worldwide.

The use of traditional on-road sensors (e.g. inductive loops) for collecting data is necessary but not sufficient because of their limited coverage and expensive costs of implementation and maintenance. In the last years, the richness of road traffic data collection sources has grown substantially.

Present-day traffic management systems utilize image and video processing techniques to extract information from surveillance video of roads or junctions.
So, interest in the video based surveillance systems for traffic flow analysis is growing, even if in most cases the analysis is in a research or development stage.

2e

At the moment there are not existing partnership for the system’s development.

In the past, at the beginning of the system’s development path, there has been realized a test in partnership with Autovie Venete, a concessionaire for motorway construction and management.

3a

Some examples are:

• Traficon (Belgium) is the n.1 reference in traffic detection based on video image processing. Traffic managers all over the world use this intelligent technology for vehicle and pedestrian presence detection, traffic data collection, automatic incident detection and management in motorway, tunnel, bridge and urban applications. Traficon has more than 25 years of experience in the field of traffic vehicle detection, has more than 80,000 detectors operational worldwide, has installations in more than 500 tunnels (more than 750km of tunnels worldwide). More than 45,000 vehicle presence detectors are installed in over 60 countries.
• Smart CCTV (UK) is a value-added reseller, systems integrator and service provider of innovative video-based technologies and video analytics. They are active in road traffic management, security and the retail market research sectors.

  Their systems are used to improve the capacity of the road transport network. Their solutions will be of interest to Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) professionals, transport engineers, local authorities and parking management companies.

• Hella Aglaia (Germany) is one of the leading companies in the field of intelligent visual sensor systems. As subsidiary of automotive supplier Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. their focus is on driver assistance systems and systems for managing traffic flow. Their customers include all leading automotive and system manufacturers. Their modular product concept of hard and software components creates a broad range of application possibilities beyond the automotive sector. Hella Aglaia’s central goal is to transfer their innovative automotive solutions with their functional and qualitative level to other industry sectors – especially public transportation and facility management.

3b

• lower prices based on lower production costs

• product differentiation (uniqueness of the product proposal)

3c

• High price range

• Average price range

• Low price range

The potential price policy is average price.

3d

• To regulated markets (e.g. heat supply, water supply, universal telecommunication services, agricultural products, fishing industry, architectural services)

• To markets operating on the principle of free negotiation between agents on the market

The product will been marketed to free markets.