MAIN Roads WA will soon begin the first trial of new image recognition technology that could revolutionise traffic monitoring in Western Australia.

Delivery times could improve thanks to the ANPR software / Image - Courtest Istockphoto

The trial aims to improve efficiency in the freight industry by accurately measuring the travel times of trucks between three intersections on Leach Highway.

If successful, the system will be expanded to cover the whole route from depots in Welshpool to  Fremantle.

The trial uses Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) software to identify numerals on number plates in images taken from traffic cameras.

It then compares the time stamps and determines the travel time between points at different times of day, eventually giving a reliable estimate to freight companies.

Main Roads traffic operations manager Craig Wooldridge says a lack of accurate delivery time estimates often results in significant delays to freight companies.

"There’s been a problem with trucks arriving in port at 4pm and having to queue for several hours," he says.

"While others will be running behind schedule and end up speeding or running red lights to arrive on time."

Mr Wooldridge says freight companies will eventually be able to track deliveries in real time either via an internet portal or in-house software, while truck drivers could have access from their GPS.

Main Roads traffic system asset manager John Venables says the six-month trial is about familiarising staff with the technology and to see if it can produce accurate results.

"There are problems with cars being blocked by other cars or changing lanes which makes the number plates difficult to read as the cameras are mounted on the side of the road.”

The trial has already been delayed several months by readjustments since the cameras were deployed last December, and now by data transmission problems across Telstra's network, but Mr Venables expects to begin in a few weeks.

Tim Davidson, optical character recognition team leader at Redflex, the company developing ANPR technology in Australia, says ANPR works by taking multiple images of a passing vehicle with a camera, laser or radar. It can filter for vehicles with certain characteristics, such as weight.

It then analyses the images using a more powerful version of the tool used in computer scanners and recognises the characters on a number plate and exports them to a text file which can be compared to databases.

Mr Wooldridge says Main Roads could in future use ANPR to analyse traffic flow, identify problems and give early warning to drivers about accidents or congestion.

"The technology has significantly improved over the past five years," he says.

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