AN OBJECT MONITORING SYSTEM

• Main Authors: AUTY, GLEN WILLIAM, DUNN, PAUL ALEXANDER, MILLS, DENNIS CHARLES, JENSEN, MURRAY JOHN, CORKE, PETER IAN, SIMONS, BENJAMIN FRANCIS, PIERCE, DAVID STUART, BALAKUMAR, PONNAMPALAM, KNIGHT, RODNEY LAVIS, MACINTYRE, IAN BARRY
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French
• Published: 31.01.2006
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; HANDLING RECORD CARRIERS; IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL; INDICATING PRESENCE, ABSENCE, OR DIRECTION, OF MOVEMENT; MEASURING; MEASURING LINEAR OR ANGULAR SPEED, ACCELERATION, DECELERATION,OR SHOCK; PHYSICS; PRESENTATION OF DATA; RECOGNITION OF DATA; RECORD CARRIERS; SIGNALLING; TESTING; TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS

An object monitoring system includes a camera node (2) for monitoring moveme nt of an object (18) to determine as acquisition time when an image of the obje ct (18) is to be acquired and acquiring the image at the predetermined time. The system includes a camera (6) which is able to monitor moving objects (18), and image processing circuitry (10), responsive to the camera (6), which is able to detect a predetermined moving object (18) from other moving and static objects. From the image acquired, information identifying the object (18) can be automatically extracted. The system is particularly suited to monitoring and discriminating large vehicles (18) fro m other vehicles over a multi-lane roadway, and acquiring high resolution images of the large vehicles (18) at a predetermined acquisition point (22). Image data acquired by a plurality of camera nodes (2) can be sent over a digital telecommunications network (45) to a central image processing system (42) which can exact extract vehicle identifying data, such as licence plate details, and obtain information on vehicle travel between nodes (2).