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Traffic stoppers

Lenses and cameras from American manufacturer Rainbow CCTV are bringing major financial savings for highway authorities in the US.

The company's 6,5-39 mm and 6,5-65 mm motorised zoom lenses are being used in innovative traffic management projects. They are being mounted on luminaire or mast arms at road junctions in assemblies which detect vehicles while conventional traffic lights have been disabled during resurfacing work.

Working as a key Machine Vision component, the Rainbow lenses and cameras produce images that actuate a circuit in a video processor. Detection lines or zones are superimposed onto the image, allowing for configuration of sensing areas as required.

In this way the signals on temporary lights are changed according to the direction of the car and priority of traffic so producing significant time and cost-savings for the end-user who would otherwise have to close lanes while digging channels to lay inductive loops or triggering devices. Managers at the transportation departments of the states and city municipalities who use the system have stressed the low total cost of ownership.

A recent and extensive application of these techniques has taken place in the city of Lynwood, Washington.

In addition to zoom lenses, the client is benefiting from Rainbow's 1/3" BL58DF monochrome camera with 580 TV lines resolution. The unit has high sensitivity of 0.06 lux and includes backlight compensation and there is a Backfocus Mode for easy one-touch focusing.

Rainbow CCTV products are available locally through ADI International.

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