A main feature of this year’s Secutech is the Mobility section where exhibitors showcase their cutting edge products and solutions to help end users solve various transportation-related problems.
Needless to say, parking is a critical element in an urban setting, and smart solutions are more and more deployed to help with management and enforcement. Indeed, a recent report by Allied Market Research suggests the smart parking market was valued at US$5 billion and is projected to reach $11.6 billion by 2025, registering a compound annual growth rate of 11.2 percent from 2018 to 2025.
In this regard, parking is a major theme at the Mobility section this year. Nietzsche Enterprise, one of the exhibitors, has a solution that helps operators achieve better management.
Nietzsche’s parking sensor works by way of magnetism and radar. “A vehicle is basically a big piece of iron that will disturb the magnetic field of a given area. A ground magnetic sensor works by way of that. Radar, meanwhile, shoots an electromagnetic beam and detects something when the signal bounces back,” said Johnson Chang, Executive VP of Nietzsche. “The reason we use this dual-mode detection method is to improve accuracy, which can be raised significantly.”
Once the sensor detects a vehicle it transmits the data to the end user organization. To make sure the data gets transmitted properly, Nietzsche’s solution is equipped with a patented antenna technology, which works by way of the NB-IOT protocol and transmits data to a nearby base station.
The end user could be various organizations or individuals, including meter maids, Chang said. “For example, in the past they have to walk up and down streets to issue parking tickets. But now, parking data can be transmitted directly to their terminal so they can issue tickets only when alerted of a parked vehicle, thus helping optimize manpower,” he said.
Better enforcement
Catching illegally parked cars or maintaining the flow of traffic is another important element of smart transportation. In this regard, FIC has rolled out a solution that combines the company’s control box and software to enable remote monitoring and enforcement. “A car, for example, may be parked at a bus lane. The system will be notified of this immediately and act accordingly, for example sounding a siren or displaying a text on digital signage to warn drivers,” said Nina Chen, Sales Manager at FIC.
Besides enforcement, the solution can help with parking management whereby a regular car parked at a space reserved for electric vehicles can be detected and dealt with. Further, the solution can be integrated with electric charging stations to inform end users of electric usage by EVs at a given time, allowing them to optimize electric supply.
Finally, onboard units have become more and more advanced to help solve end user’s different needs. Vecow, for example, has on display its RCX-1520 PEG industrial PC with dual NVIDIA graphic processing units. Installed in buses, trains and even autonomous vehicles, the unit has many more times processing power than units with single GPUs.
“The difference between single and dual GPUs can be analogized by comparing an elementary school student doing simple math to a middle school student doing algebra,” said Hugh Hsu, Senior Product Manager at Vecow.