Machine vision expert VITRONIC, based in Wiesbaden/Germany, has received the ZIM award 2013 for the outstanding commercial success it has achieved through innovation.
The award was presented to the owner of the company, Dr.-Ing. Norbert Stein, by the Parliamentary State Secretary, Ernst Burgbacher.
VITRONIC used funding provided under the Central Innovation Program for SMEs (ZIM), operated by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi), to develop an innovative system for video-based traffic surveillance at traffic light intersections.
In many countries, speed limit violations and red light violations represent the most frequent causes of serious traffic accidents. While traffic surveillance improves road safety, conventional technology (radar, loops, light barriers) limit its use in dense traffic and in places that are particularly dangerous. However, these limitations can now be overcome by the "LIDAR" laser-based technology developed by VITRONIC.
Dr.-Ing. Norbert Stein (on left) receives the ZIM Award from Ernst Burgbacher.
In 2006 VITRONIC launched the first product in its PoliScan family, the PoliScanspeed speed enforcement system. Just a few years later VITRONIC was the global leader in the high-tech segment of traffic measurement technology.
As most countries have different technological requirements, the company's product portfolio must be capable of meeting a wide range of requirements specific to each country. In relation to red light violations, for example, different countries may have different requirements in terms of traffic-light and thoroughfare design.
The awarded innovative system for video-based traffic enforcement, which is used in combination with digital video technology and does not require a technical connection to the traffic light control unit, provides reliable visual evidence that tracks the vehicle in relation to both the overall traffic situation and the appearance of the red light on the intersection's traffic lights. This innovation further distinguishes VITRONIC from its competitors, and enhances its technological cutting-edge.
VITRONIC's Managing Director, Dr.-Ing. Norbert Stein explains that the innovative traffic surveillance technology is aimed in par-ticular at rapidly growing emerging markets with a burgeoning number of road users and with a higher-than-average number of accidents.
Fortunately, figures show that accidents are already down at intersections where the system has been installed, for example, in Qatar, Dubai and Saudi Arabia (by 75%). The tech-nology, which has been on the market since 2011, has, at the end of 2012, generated sales in the region of 7 million euros. And, thanks to funding by the BMWi, ten new full-time positions have already been created.
The relatively low government funding has led to a great economic benefit. In customer countries due to the reduced amount of accidents, in Germany due to job creations and tax revenues.