Vehicle speed detection solution

Camlytics software processes video streams from the range of video sources - IP cameras, webcams, video files, etc. During video processing, metadata events are generated, such as Line crossed, Zone join, Zone left and others.

Such a powerful events triggers, as Lines and Zones allow a lot of custom data manipulations. Every single analytical event that comes from any video source - IP camera, webcam, NVR, video file or video folder, has a lot of properties - source ID, timestamp, video file time, object ID, origin, channel ID, type and others. This data can be used to find links between different scene events. For instance, you can detect speed based on two lines in your scene.

 

Note: Camlytics version

This tutorial covers the configuration of the speed detection for older, Camlytics Single software. Newer Service solution also has the same feature with a significant advantage - the speed data is collected automatically, allowing building real-time charts with multiple time periods speed comparison, average vs max speed comparison, as well as filtering detection results in a speed data table.

speed detection report chart

 

Step 1: Add 2 lines

Add any video source where you want to detect speed. Make sure you calibrate it properly so that all moving objects are detected correctly and in time. Place two lines one after another so that they cover the full vehicle travel distance. The greater the distance the better. Make sure that moving vehicles are always detected and both lines generate events for each vehicle.

camera vehicle speed

See how it looks in action, you'll be able to detect the speed for two vehicles in the following video:

 

Step 2: Measure distance between the lines

Measure the real distance between those lines. The greater the distance the more precise the speed calculation will be. The distance is 18 meters in our case.

Important! Tripweres must be calibrated in the same direction (all directions, or both right, or both left) in order to register correct speed events.

detect car speed video

 

Step 3: Calculate speed

As vehicles travel through two lines, every vehicle will have the same object ID for both events generated by those lines. That is how they can be matched. In our example there are two events with object ID = 1 and the timestamps are 5.024s and 6.458s. The timestamp delta = 6.458 - 5.024 = 1.434s. Knowing the delta and the distance between lines we can calculate the speed = distance / timestamp delta = 18 / 1.434 ~ 12.55 m/s = 45.18 km/h

detect car speed webcam

 

Therefore, the vehicle traveled with the speed of approximately 45 km/h. The whole speed detection process can be automated by collecting all Line crossed events, exporting them into .csv file and then using our calculator below. Make sure that you have 2 or more lines configured in your scene.
Note: you will need this calculator only if you use Camlytics Single, the data upload is automatic in the Service version.

You can find the same calculator on a separate page for your convenience.

 

Conclusions

If you have a pre-recorded video footage or you have a regular traffic IP camera and you need speed detection ASAP, Camlytics Single and Camlytis Service are a very simple and a very budget solution. You can even use cameras with broken perspective to detect vehicle speed, all you need to know is the distance between your lines (see the sample below).

Try for free
Check out our YouTube channel which has plenty of real-life video analytics demos.

Our clients