Automatic Passenger Counting Systems in Busses

As one of the safest road vehicles, buses are highly relevant to mobility. Buses cover different functions depending on the type. Regular buses are used to connect cities and towns or cities to increase the covered area of subways and streetcars. Coaches, on the other hand, are used for long-distance travel.

Accurate passenger counting is important for several reasons:

1. Route Planning & Timetable Optimization
2. Sales estimate & income distribution within a transport network
3. Maintenance planning
4. Ticket sales validation
5. Utilization display

Isarsoft relies on the use of security cameras for automatic passenger counting. In addition to accurate passenger counting, the intelligent evaluation software can also provide other information, such as

1. Occupation of the accesses by strollers and bicycles
2. Vandalism and graffiti detection
3. Contamination detection for adjustment of cleaning intervals

The evaluation of the cameras in the vehicle can be done in two ways. Either directly on the camera (smart camera) or on a smart box. The results of the people counting are then transmitted from the vehicle via GSM or LoRaWAN to a server and visualized and processed in the Isarsoft dashboard.

Smart vehicle cameras

With a smart vehicle camera, the software runs directly on the camera. As with conventional cameras, the video data can be stored on a recorder in the vehicle. The count data is combined with geodata from the on-board unit (OBU) and sent as metadata from the camera to the gateway for transmission to the server.

The smart camera differs from a conventional camera by a more powerful chip which supports applications based on artificial intelligence.

Smart On-Board Unit

The smart box is an alternative to the smart camera which is particularly useful for existing cameras. The smart box is the only additional device in the vehicle and processes the image streams from the cameras in the vehicle. After linking with the location information of the OBU, the data is forwarded to the gateway.

Technology

Isarsoft uses artificial intelligence (AI) for the evaluation of the cameras. Trained on thousands of images, the Isarsoft AI is able to achieve an accuracy comparable to that of humans. The following sample video shows how the evaluation looks concretely:

Hardware

Isarsoft relies on strong partner companies for the installed hardware. Their many years of experience in dealing with AI and image processing ensure that the hardware is optimally designed for the application.

Data protection and data security

The approach described in this article pursues image processing in the vehicle, i.e. no images leave the vehicle. Furthermore, no personal data is stored. The images from the camera are processed within a few milliseconds.

Advantages

The advantages of camera-based passenger counting are obvious. Since cameras are often necessary for safety reasons, the costly installation of expensive 3D sensors can be dispensed with. In addition to the savings, cameras offer outstanding analysis capabilities that go beyond those of other sensors.

More about Isarsoft

With Isarsoft Perception, your camera systems become part of your business intelligence. Whether the goal is to increase efficiency, customer satisfaction or safety, Isarsoft Perception provides the insights needed for informed decisions.

Contact us, to learn more about how to turn security cameras into intelligent sensors.