Counting Construction Vehicles on Beach

3/26/2025 Anna Vacha, Jackson Bareford

"We were asked to find a solution to count trucks on a beach, providing materials for beach erosion. Anna and the intuVision team provided the perfect hybrid software solution, with intuVision Edge and intuVision VA, to make this project happen even with a challenging environment. The support from Anna and her team was world class!"
Jackson Bareford, Palmetto Smart Home

The Customer Challenge

Palmetto Smart Homes was tasked by their customer to implement a video-based solution for counting construction equipment along beach. Challenging requirements for tracking the trucks during the day and at night with extremely low lighting conditions, and having a backup solution in case of connectivity downtime were met by using both intuVision VA and intuVision Edge.

The Solution - intuVision VA Hybrid

A hybrid deployment of intuVision VA for primary vehicle counting and intuVision Edge as the camera embedded vehicle counting as the backup provided a flexible solution.

With nearly 20 years of expertise in video analytics, intuVision initially developed algorithms for maritime environments focused on security applications. While intuVision VA Security continues to serve secure facilities, an increasing number of cities and local governments are now utilizing intuVision VA for data collection purposes.

Benefits

Versatile Solution: Adapts to a wide range of environments and requirements.
Hybrid Processing: Counts vehicles with both intuVision VA and intuVision Edge for redundancy.
Trainable Vehicle Classification: Differentiate between different types of objects – count only construction vehicles.
Video Archive Review: Record and review archived video from a single user interface.

Equipment-at-a-Glance

Hardware: AXIS Cameras, Windows PC

Software: intuVision VA, intuVision Edge

The Project

A private community working to reverse beach erosion needed an effective way to track the number of trucks arriving each day for deliveries.

Key challenges included:

A distributed system setup with limited infrastructure
The presence of both people and private vehicles on the beach during the day
Extremely low light conditions at night due to restrictions protecting endangered species, such as sea turtles, on the beach

Technical Implementation

The system was designed to address these challenges while providing accurate truck counts. intuVision VA handled baseline counts and review of recorded video, while intuVision Edge acted as a backup for counting trucks over periods when the connectivity was lost to stream the video.

Camera Installation: A camera was installed on a private citizen's porch, utilizing their internet connection. The camera streams footage to the intuVision VA system running remotely on a server located in the community's boathouse.
Edge Processing with intuVision Edge: The camera is equipped with intuVision Edge, which enables local processing and truck counting even during internet outages, ensuring continuous tracking of vehicles.
intuVision VA for Enhanced Accuracy: The intuVision VA system, located at the boathouse, provides more accurate vehicle counts, with additional features such as snapshot capture and markup tools for detailed review and analysis.
Daytime Operation: During the day, the system uses classification algorithms to differentiate between construction vehicles and others. intuVision VA handles a variety of activities, preventing people walking, animals, private vehicles, beach guard golf carts, umbrellas, and more, from being falsely counted.
Nighttime Operation: Due to the protected status of sea turtle hatchlings, absolutely no lighting is allowed on the beach at night, creating challenges for vehicle detection. Trucks entering the area are detected using their headlights.
Video Recording: To address nighttime challenges, recording functionality is enabled. Community leaders can use the intuVision Review app to manually review recorded footage and identify trucks that were not sufficiently visible during their exit.