The Challenge
Destination Gotland is a Swedish ferry line with a fleet of four high-speed Ro-Pax ferries that runs state-subsidized domestic ferries from Nynäshamn, Oskarshamn, and Västervik on mainland Sweden to Visby on the island of Gotland. It is a wholly owned daughter company of Rederi AB Gotland that operates other lines and types of vessels. The line transports over 1.4 million passengers and 640,000 lane meters of freight to the island of Gotland each year. During the high season, up to 16 ferries depart for the three-hour journey between mainland Sweden and the island of Gotland every day.
Passenger administration is difficult to manage with such a high volume of traffic. The verification of tickets and the check-in of vehicles is a lengthy process, and it is an additional challenge to optimize the use of available parking space. Destination Gotland was looking for a solution to automatically count passengers during boarding to make the process faster and more accurate.
The Solution
In 2022 Adaptive Recognition delivered a complex passenger counting solution to Destination Gotland consisting of Adaptive Recognition’s Vidar PAX ANPR cameras for passenger counting and the GDS data server.
The VIDAR PAX passenger counting camera is a purpose-built version of Adaptive Recognition’s flagship VIDAR smart camera, which is standard hardware developed and manufactured by Adaptive Recognition. The integrated polarization filter ensures steady image quality, while the PAX software engine identifies passengers and their location within the vehicle.
Upon reaching the optical trigger at the detection zone, the image taken by the primary sensor of the front camera is used to read the car’s plate number and nationality and identify its make, model, and color. As the vehicle rolls forward, the secondary sensor – combined with the side cameras – feeds the PAX software engine with a series of images taken of the interior of the car.
The engine records the number of passengers sitting inside and assigns them their detected position. Finally, the optional Vidar Smart ANPR camera, placed at the back, provides information about the rear plate number and nationality. The result – broken down to occupants sitting in the first row, seated in the back row, and the total number of people – is added to the event package, which includes ANPR and MMR information.
Passenger Counting is the smart way to automate vehicle check-in procedures, verify pre-booked ferry tickets portside, or control access to traffic lanes and parking spots restricted for high occupancy vehicles, such as families traveling together. For the commercial sector, this system grants real-time information about the number of visitors and customers arriving at the company premises before they’ve even left their car.
Adaptive Recognition Solutions Used
The Vidar PAX passenger counting camera takes perfect images of the interior of vehicles and returns the number of passengers seated at the front and the rear of the cabin. The device features a set of dual-optics camera modules and LED arrays to see through all common types of windshields with clarity and without disturbing drivers. Vidar PAX cameras are smart enough to automatically tune themselves for the best settings: zoom and focus are adjusted based on the telemetry report of the onboard gyroscope, accelerometer, and laser.
Built-in triggers ensure that no vehicle is missed. The camera returns high-quality images that are suitable for facial recognition, vehicle occupancy detection, as well as seatbelt and mobile phone usage control. Thanks to its strong encryption, this sensitive data is protected.
Globessey Data Server (GDS) is a combined data server and middleware to make information collected from different endpoints available through a standardized interface. It is a complete traffic data middleware solution which is the soul of any traffic monitoring system.
GDS includes a database that was designed specifically for the storage of traffic-related information in a high-speed, scalable, and easy-to-manage format, as well as a built-in ergonomic graphic user interface.
GDS collects data from numerous endpoints and handles queries of various business units effortlessly. Apart from passenger counting, number plate recognition software is also used by police organizations, toll collection agencies, or any other traffic authority.
Learn more about our ANPR/LPR cameras
Passenger counting is one of the many use cases covered by the modular design of Adaptive Recognition’s Vidar Smart ANPR camera.
However, thanks to its versatility and advanced features, Vidar offers solutions for many other use cases as well from the recognition of hazardous material signs to image-based vehicle axle identification and categorization. Other models are capable of recognizing container codes.
If you would like to discover the range of use cases of the Vidar product family, visit the dedicated category page for license plate recognition cameras.
