Traffic, Speed, and Redlight camera How are They Different

The best part of owning a vehicle has to be the urge to go faster than anyone, going without direction and basically getting lost in the moment but we must keep in mind that in order to keep one safe and others prosperity this is not the thing that one must do, especially when various kinds or traffic monitoring solutions are keeping eye on your every surrounding.

This keeping of eye does not mean only through a real-time camera, it’s mostly coupled with ATCC in toll plazas and ANPR for each big traffic signal post. Sometimes instead of these a radar speed sign is used where instead of creating a charge right way drivers are reminded what their speed is and what their speed is supposed to be. So if you were wondering if traffic cameras, red light cameras are speed cameras are the same, they are not. The way they work and the purpose of their existence are different let’s try to understand what is the differences between these and the way they work.

Simpler Definition

In order to answer the question what is the difference between traffic cameras, relight cameras, and speed cameras first you should know that all of them are a kind of cameras that monitor vehicles some of them can issue a ticket, and others only use as monitoring camera.

Monitoring/ Non-Enforcement Camera

Traffic Sensor Cameras

This is the most used in type of traffic camera. The traffic sensor camera. You will be able to see them on top of traffic signals or mounted high on light poles above roadways. They look like up-side down dome and covered in waterproof round casing. They will always be on the top of the traffic signal posts. They will never have there own pole.

They are not used as enforcement systems instead they are used to measure the traffic flow and determine traffic light timing. These videos are often used for incident reconstruction.

Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) Cameras

ANPR cameras are cameras that are combined with branch of artificial intelligence called computer vision that allows them to read and recognize numbers and letters, in this case it recognizes the number plates of a vehicle. Hence the name automatic number plate recognition system.

These cameras can be either be mounted on a police vehicle, on a motorcycle helmet or it can be fixed in a pole. They can be connected to a ticket generating software but mostly they are used to tracking the whereabouts of drivers – which is something that a lot of people are uncomfortable with.

ANPR keep recordings or vehicles while staying hanging in the vehicle or helmet of the and can automatically scan and cross reference license plates with government databases. Like, for example when a vehicle with expired insurance shows up n front of the camera, the ANPR reads the text compares it to the data base and then checks it it has the valid documents and sends the notification to the police.

How to Recognize?

How can you tell if a camera is an ANPR camera or a traffic sensor camera? Unlike normal cameras, ANPR cameras operate in the infrared (invisible) light spectrum. They do this for better low-light functionality, so the cameras can still work at night. Due to this, most are equipped with an infrared “spotlight” consisting of clusters of infrared LEDs. It seems like a dotted circle of led lights. If you see these LED clusters, you can be almost certain that the cameras is the ANPR variety. Also from their placements either in helmets or in front or the a vehicle is a great indicator.

Automatic Enforcement Camera

Redlight Camera

They are used by most governments yet they are still controversial. These are cameras coupled with AI-powered computers that issue tickets automatically. These are put at the busy intersections of the roads here the AI application is given an imaginary line through the lens when any vehicle crosses that imaginary line it is detected. It is given another line that represents the red line.

When a vehicle crosses the line before the allotted time, the system will read the number plate with ANPR and the server sends the owner of the vehicle a red light camera ticket through the mail. These videos can also be sent to be manually verified to ensure the violation indeed happened but you won’t need to do that as we built our solution to work without any mistakes.

How to Recognize?

Obviously, as its name suggests it would be mounted near a red light camera. This is the easiest way to recognize a red light camera. Yes from the place it is installed in. The ANPR looks small and can consist of one or two Close Circuit cameras at max but the red light camera would be bigger and bulkier each camera will be attached to a camera box containing circuit boards and modules and often with two flashers. There will also often be multiple red light cameras at each intersection, to capture angles from multiple directions.

Can You Beat This?

When you ask for red light camera near me ? Your next ovious question will now be can you really beat this, no there is no way you can beat this when you once detected by it you are detected by it, there is no way back. However if you want to face the accuse of violation in court that wont be possible too.

Unfortunately, this is not a valid legal argument. Red light cameras are not issuing moving violations or criminal changes. From a legal standpoint, they are administrative violations like parking tickets. This expressly removes your right to face an accuser in court. If you receive a red light ticket in the mail and choose to ignore it, you will not be arrested – but you may have it sent to collections where it will damage your credit.

Speed Camera

Speed cameras are similar in concept to red light cameras. Speed cameras also automatically detect and issue violations, except they do so for speeding violations instead of for red light violations.

How to Recognize?

Similar to the previous placement should be the first way to recognize a speed camera. The placement of speed cameras is usually a little bit different than that of red light cameras. While you can usually find red light cameras in heavily populated urban areas, speed signs tend to be used on less populated back roads and in residential areas where residents may have complained of frequent speeding and the camera is installed after that.

Speed Cameras Are Found in Two Types

There are two types of speed cameras: fixed and mobile. Fixed speed cameras are the easiest to spot, since they are almost always mounted on elevated poles on the side of the road. These cameras are easy to spot due to their bulky weatherproof enclosures and external flashes (often mounted on a separate pole).

The mobile speed camera is a bulky camera attached with huge metal case these are mounted on short tripod and are medium short in hight. Most of the time cops will be around it so you wont have hard time trying to find it out. Sometimes they installed in a van. When this happens it becomes hard to find and as they are mobile you cannot rely on crowd sourcing platform.

Can You Beat This ?

Just like the previous one you cannot beat the system but if you are wondering weather you can detect it and slowdown down to avoid detection you are right its possible to beat is this way. The catch here is the camera will detect you before you can see it also the “Radar Application” available in the market cannot detect the modern speed detector.

low-powered K-band and MRCD (or Multaradar). In fact, most radar detectors on the market cannot even sense it properly. To get long-distance detection of MRCD and low-powered K band, you need a radar detector that has a special hardware circuit designed just for this purpose. That means your smartphone need to have a spacial hardware part to detect exactaly that.