CAM-67
Heavy rain at dusk
Night is falling and it is raining hard. The wet road throws back the headlights of the oncoming cars and the far end of the stretch is barely visible.
Turn on IRIS Vision
AI-generated image
What IRIS understands
What it recognises in this scene
- wet road
- headlights
- sign
The rule
You decide once. IRIS applies it always.
If
the road is wet and visibility along the stretch drops
Duringmore than a few minutes at a time, not a passing shower
Then
- alert the control room with the picture of the stretch
- propose lowering the variable speed limit on that stretch
- switch on the rain warning on the signs before it
The instruction that set it up«Tell me when the stretch is wet and visibility drops, so I can lower the speed before someone has a fright.»
What changes
What changes for whoever runs the road
The operator in the control room knows it is raining because he can see it through the window, but the window is sixty kilometres from the bad stretch. The forecast talks about a whole region; the camera talks about that specific kilometre, and they do not always agree. With IRIS, when the road at that point is wet and visibility drops, the alert comes up with the picture, and the operator lowers the variable speed limit and lights up the signs in time. There is no new sensor to install at every point: the camera is already there and sees what the driver sees.
What people usually ask
Does IRIS measure how much rain falls?
No. IRIS does not measure millimetres of rain, or temperature, or wind: that needs weather sensors, and they are a different thing. What the camera sees is the real state of the road: whether the surface is wet, whether it reflects, whether traffic has its headlights on in mid-afternoon and how far down the stretch you can still make things out. It is driving information, not a weather report.
How does it know that visibility is poor?
By comparing the picture now with the usual picture of that same frame. When the far end of the stretch blurs away, contrast drops and headlights only appear much closer than normal, the camera is seeing what the driver sees: visibility is poor. It is an estimate of what reaches the eye, not an instrument reading, and it should be described that way.
Isn't the weather forecast enough?
The forecast is for getting ready; it does not tell you whether there is water on the road at that particular kilometre right now. A stretch in a dip, in the shade or with worn surfacing gets wet sooner and dries later than the rest. The camera covers the point, not the region, which is why the alert arrives when the speed on that stretch really does need to come down.
Simulation · how IRIS works
Watch what happens. Then watch what IRIS does with it.
Not a recorded video and not a drawing: it is a summary of the real tool, with a different case each time round. The whole tool does not fit in a box.
- You draw the line
- It counts by itself
- A number comes out
Next step
Why did the line stop?
237 cases, and in every one of them IRIS raises an alert when something happens. You see each image as it is, and then with what it understands on top.
How many bays are free right now?
15 cases: 9 raise an alert when something happens and 6 only measure. You see each image as it is, and then with what IRIS understands on top.
And the best part
A whole afternoon in front of a screennow fits into one written sentence.
The video has not changed: it is all still there, in the same place. What has changed is that you can ask it questions, and the answer comes with its camera and its time.
Tell us your problem and we will say whether IRIS understands it, or not yet.
We reply the same working day.