Xerox Scientists Turn Highway Overpasses into Research Labs

During this episode we'll speak with Xerox research scientist, Peter Paul, who is part of a research team working on ways to help law enforcement officials improve the monitoring of HOT (high occupancy toll) and HOV (high occupancy vehicle) highway lanes.

HOV lanes, commonly known as carpool lanes, allow vehicles with just one person in them to use carpool lanes for a toll. Until now the only method of enforcing HOT lanes was to have a cop present to enforce the rules.

Peter and his Xerox team are working to automate enforcement with cameras and imaging technology that can instantly detect the number of occupants in a vehicle at highway speeds. And while testing ideas via computer simulations in the laboratory is great, nothing beats learning from real-world data, which is why Peter has taken his lab to the streets.

We’ll discuss this and other innovations we can expect at the 2012 ITS World Congress in Vienna this month.