New infrared camera aims to catch car share cheats

David Smith for The Observer

Sunday July 29 2007

Scientists have invented a roadside camera that can count the number of people inside a moving vehicle. The technology could be used to catch lone motorists who abuse congestion-easing car-share lanes. These lanes give priority to vehicles carrying at least one passenger, but can be misused by solo drivers who hope they will not be seen. Some even place human-like dummies in the seat beside them to create the illusion of a passenger.

The new Dtect system, which rapidly projects an infrared scan through a vehicle's windscreen, can distinguish human skin from mannequins, dogs or other diversions. Its inventors hope it will be in use before the end of the year. However, motoring organisations have dismissed the technology, arguing that Britain's roads do not have enough room for priority lanes and that it would be a long time before the reliability of such a device could be satisfactorily proved. The demand for an automated system has existed since 1998, when Leeds City Council created a car-sharing lane on the A647. Its scheme is enforced by council officers and police, who pull over suspected offenders and fine those who are guilty. But now experts at Loughborough University believe they have invented a more efficient system.

Loughborough's Dr John Tyrer - who is a director of Vehicle Occupancy, a company set up by the university to commercialise the invention - said: 'The problem with a policeman in a bright yellow coat is that you'll see him from afar, pull out of the priority lane, and then go back in later. You could stick a photo or dress a mannequin in the passenger seat, so CCTV is easily fooled. We couldn't use thermal images because they don't work through glass.' Tyrer and his team turned to multi-spectral imaging, which can capture light from frequencies invisible to the human eye, such as infra-red. Blood, hair and water content give human skin its own unique signature, distinct from car furniture, pets and anything else that might be in view.

Last year the Department for Transport announced plans for the first car-share lane on a motorway, allowing qualifying vehicles to bypass congestion on the M62 near Bradford, where the Highway Agency found that 84 per cent of vehicles were carrying one occupant during peak times. But Dtect met with a cool reception from motoring groups. Nigel Humphries, spokesman for the Association of British Drivers, said: 'We haven't got enough road space in this country for multiple occupants, buses, cyclists and three-legged dwarfs. You'd actually be prioritising school-run mums, and I thought we didn't want to prioritise them.'

Paul Watters, head of roads policy at the AA, said: 'It's been recognised that [car-share lanes] are only enforced effectively by a police presence. We'd need assurance of reliability. We've seen with speed cameras and number-plate thefts that people will find a way around things. The criminal end of motoring is very adept at that.'

[Of course I fully expect to be one of only a few people disturbed by this story. But I can’t help wondering where this particular technology will ‘creep’ next?]