I’ve taken my solar-powered, waterproof Telraam setup for a spin on a light pole in the neighbourhood. Unfortunately, it seems it’s misclassifying vehicles, and perhaps also missing pedestrians.
I’m wondering if the light pole is too close to the street for this to work properly. I might need to angle it downward to properly capture the nearest pavement, but I’m also thinking that the exaggerated heavy vehicle count may be because the camera is so close to the subject.
Any thoughts?
Data here: Telraam
that looks like a really interesting construction - thanks for sharing.
Putting a device close to the street is not necessarily the issue, but you need to consider how it works and recognises objects in order to get the right data.
First, the AI is trained on objects it sees roughly side-on, and they need to appear completely within the frame of the image. If the object is seen from above instead, or is so close that the AI is only seeing a portion of the object (e.g. a car) - whether you are cutting off the front/rear or the top/bottom - then it will struggle to recognise the objects.
The camera in the S2 is already designed to point in a downward direction, but in order to get a wide field of view, this is around 30 degrees. If you put it very close to the street, but also at height, then the area that is not visible will be quite substantial.
To help, you need to make sure your ROI is as wide as possible in this case (so I have extended your selection from ROI 7 to 11 to try to help).
These are some of the specifications we are still putting together for the outdoor version based on our experience from our trials.
It might help to consider that even if you are using the device outdoors, it is built to observe a street from a building which will (usually) be set back from the road a lot more than a post on the street itself. If you can find a placement such as a balcony, or under the eaves of a building (as indicated), which are closer to our original indoor design positions, it might work better than on a lamppost.
I set the ROI to 7 because the additional FOV of ROI 11 seemed to only provide a view of the opposite property’s garden. However, I’m not opposed to 11.
Regarding alternative placements, the major point is that this is public property, and so it’s easier to get permission to place it there, and some roads do not have adjacent buildings at all.
This is a proof of concept test. If I can make it work (and reduce power consumption/increase charging capacity), the plan is to place it somewhere more meaningful, and enjoy the freedom to do so. On this street, I could have used my own house 
If it is designed to be used at a certain distance from the road, this approach may not be viable, since the lights are normally right on the edge of the road. Or perhaps lowering it is an option?
Yes, lowering might indeed help a bit - while of course having some security implications.
Lampposts would seem to be logical options, but they will always be very close to the street by definition. If you can’t put up a dedicated post, then buildings, or possibly signage, or even trees might be a better option for this.
