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Citizen uses OpenCV to track speeders near his home

cvilletomorrow.org

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Re: Citizen uses OpenCV to track speeders near his home

#71

Post by mtmail »

gus_massa wrote: post #31

I'll copy a very interesting comment by Anton Largiader http://www.cvilletomorrow.org/news/article/22908-locust-aven... > One very interesting approach I have seen overseas is a traffic light that turns red if you are speeding as you approach it. It's incredibly effective; instant feedback on your behavior, and immediate loss of any time you gained by speeding. No ticket, unless you run the light. Drivers quickly con…

I've seen special traffic lights showing at which average speed you will hit the next one green. There was a two km stretch, 100km/h allowed and lights near the beginning would show you if you hit green going 60km/h, 70km/h or 80km/h. There was no (written) sign explaining the numbers but I guess the locals would know how to act.

Re: Citizen uses OpenCV to track speeders near his home

#72

Post by otoburb »

jrowley wrote: post #65

I was assuming from the title that he was going to actually track down the speeders using OCR on their license plate. Cool read though

Presumably that's next via Tesseract + OpenCV. There's even a license plate library called OpenALPR[1] already available that the professor is probably itching to use if he ever gets city approval.

[1] https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr

Re: Citizen uses OpenCV to track speeders near his home

#73

Post by furyg3 »

pc86 wrote: post #10
OhHeyItsE wrote: post #7

I wonder how the HN commentariat would feel about this if it was a government agency behind this rather than a fellow hacker...

It's one thing to just get the data and make an argument (in this case, "slow down") - it's an entirely separate thing to do that and start issuing citations or impounding vehicles.

Why is issuing a citation in this way so problematic?

In a few places near where I live there is extremely clear signage about the speed limit, and that speed cameras are in effect, 100% of the time, every single day. If you speed there, you will get a ticket. The systems are configured to only send the data of speeders, and are audited. It is extremely effective.

I prefer this system in every way to the way tickets are generally handled in the US. It's effective, it's fair, it does not discriminate against minorities, it does not endanger lives of the driver/police/other drivers as pulling someone over does, and it's much easier for me to avoid a ticket, it respects my privacy, persuasive / weeping / friends of cops can't get out of it, there's no chance for police to start tacking on other violations (your blinker is broken!)... etc, etc, etc.

It's just better in every way, except the fact that driving on these particular roads is really boring!

Re: Citizen uses OpenCV to track speeders near his home

#74

Post by ape4 »

mikeash wrote: post #63
Someone1234 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like that idea but I do worry about it causing rear-end collisions. In an ideal world drivers wouldn't speed and they also wouldn't tailgate, but in the world we currently occupy both are extremely common (even amongst law enforcement). So while this would act to reduce speeding, the unpredictability may increase accidents and it is definitely going to reduce traffic flow.

Rear end collisions like this tend to be pretty benign. For example, one of the arguments against red light cameras is that they actually increase the number of accidents. However, they also increase safety. How? Because while they increase the number of rear end collisions, they decrease the number of side impact collisions, which are much more deadly. Net result: more bent metal, less bent flesh. I'd also be surpri…

Yes, I thought that about this issue too. Perhaps more distinct signage and early warning lights might get cars to slow before the red.

Re: Citizen uses OpenCV to track speeders near his home

#75

Post by pc86 »

addled wrote: post #55
pc86 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lowest limit in my state (aside from 15 in some parking lots) is 25. It is rare for anyone to go below 30, most are going about 35.

While getting onto a toll road in Oklahoma a few years ago, I was surprised to see a 17mph speed limit.

I saw a couple odd ones around Nashville last time I was there, I think it was 23 on a small road leading toward a mall.

Re: Citizen uses OpenCV to track speeders near his home

#76

Post by ryandrake »

pc86 wrote: post #10
OhHeyItsE wrote: post #7

I wonder how the HN commentariat would feel about this if it was a government agency behind this rather than a fellow hacker...

It's one thing to just get the data and make an argument (in this case, "slow down") - it's an entirely separate thing to do that and start issuing citations or impounding vehicles.

> Reynolds and neighbor Bruce Odell will make a presentation on the software to the council Monday night.

It's not just a neat tech hobby--this is a busybody pitching what amounts to ubiquitous rule-enforcement to the local government.

Re: Citizen uses OpenCV to track speeders near his home

#77

Post by sklogic »

jstanley wrote: post #54
jurassic wrote: post #49

Some commenters here are commenting as if speeding is some petty thing that doesn't matter. Speeding kills. Something as small as 10 miles over a 30mph may mean a doubling in fatality rate for pedestrians and bicyclists. One source: https://www.aaafoundation.org/sites/default/files/2011Pedest...

Speeding doesn't kill people, crashing kills people.

People in residential areas (children in particular) tend to jump out of nowhere totally unexpected. No driver experience and reaction can help to avoid a collision in such cases. The only way is to keep your speed at level. Those who are speeding in such areas are retards.

Re: Citizen uses OpenCV to track speeders near his home

#78

Post by lorenzhs »

otoburb wrote: post #35
wott wrote: post #22

Is it allowed in the USA for an individual to film public space?

Generally it seems you may photograph and film public property, assuming you believe Wikipedia.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photography_and_the_law#Public...

This wouldn't fly at all in Germany. If your surveillance camera films public ground, even if it's not the primary object being photographed, you're acting illegally. If, for example, you're trying to monitor your front door to catch a potential burglar and you can see the pavement and the people on it on the video, that's not allowed. You won't be able to use the footage in court even if it shows the burglar clearly. Others, including the state, can also sue to have the camera removed.

Even dummy cameras can get you in trouble (e.g. employer installing them in the office kitchen, etc).

Re: Citizen uses OpenCV to track speeders near his home

#79

Post by SlashmanX »

masklinn wrote: post #24

A pretty common sight around here (western europe) which seems to work pretty well are dynamic reminder signs: electronic signposts with a speed radar, which simply displays your speed in green if you're under the limit, orange if you're a bit over and blinking red if you're way over (using fairly bright led arrays so it's visible in most conditions) Anecdotally, it seems to work pretty well, drivers do slow down whe…

In Ireland there's a few of these types near school types which have pictures of kids crossing the road and if you're going under the limit it says "Thank you for not speeding", if you're over the limit it displays "Slow Down!" in red

Re: Citizen uses OpenCV to track speeders near his home

#80

Post by webjprgm »

I don't know if people share this opinion, but to me speeding is due to the inadequacy and inconsistency of speed limits.

Near my home there is a major thoroughfare with a 35 MPH speed limit. It has no homes facing the road, just a few fenced backyards some fair distance away but mostly it has farms, ponds, and golf courses. People regularly go 40-50 MPH down this road.

Another major road that crosses this one has a speed limit of 55 MPH. It has several houses directly on it. I've stopped once to let an old man cross the street to get to his mail box. It has a school (where the speed limit drops to 45 MPH). It is too narrow and dark in my opinion to have a 55 MPH speed limit.

I believe both roads should be 45 MPH.

Furthermore, the freeways through town are 55 MPH speed limit. Ridiculous. Most states have 65 MPH limits even within a city. (I didn't grow up here, obviously.) So naturally there is a lot of speeding.

There are probably several rules and reasons for these limits. The 35 MPH road is within city limits while the 55 MPH road is technically in a different township and would once have been considered a farm/country road though it is now a major road to an office building complex and school. We also have to deal with snow and other weather conditions part of the year, and we don't have electronic speed limit signs to change the speed limit or something based on changing conditions.

Then there's also the fact that city planners never manage to build sufficient roads until the current ones are overcrowded. So this 35 MPH road probably was not originally intended to be such a major road, but there isn't any other good way to go N-S through that part of town because the rest is all winding back and forth through neighborhoods.

I would definitely be in favor of having speed limits that were consistent and actually made sense, then enforcing them very carefully.

(Note that the article doesn't say how much over 25 counted as speeding. Did he count 26 as speeding? My own metric is that if it is less than 5 over then it is not speeding.)

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