Today, Telraam officially launches the Telraam S2, a custom designed and upgraded version of the Telraam multimodal traffic counting device. Using AI technology to support highly accurate and targeted citizen science data generation, this new device will make the installation and connection of new devices much easier, with a view to growing Telraam's international reach.
The Telraam S2 is a custom-built device, designed in Belgium and built in the EU, to address the need for affordable devices that monitor street mobility in many more locations than is possible with traditional counting methods. The Telraam S2 camera device combines an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chip to count cars, vans, bikes, pedestrians and more, and an Internet-of-Things (IoT) connection to relay the data to its servers, which is then available as Open Data.
"Telraam is extremely excited about the potential of the new S2 devices to support transport and mobility professionals, as well as citizen campaigners all over the world. We have been working on this upgrade to our original device for several years. Our goal was to make a device that was attractive and useful but was also easy to install and run, all while delivering reliable data." says Kris Vanherle, co-founder and CEO of Telraam.
Rapidly Growing International Expansion
Telraam already has almost 2000 of the original V1 devices built upon Raspberry Pi technology, active in 19 countries. To date, these devices have provided more than 26 million hours of traffic counts. New network deployments will use the S2 to take advantage of the wider range of objects that are recognised, and the built-in LTE-M connection.
There is growing demand in countries in Europe, UK, USA & Canada, but also fast-developing countries, for a device that can gather data in a simple, inexpensive and qualitative way to study the relationship between vehicle volumes and speeds, and measure the switch to active travel modes. The Telraam S2 is a solution for the complex mobility demands of cities and towns, combining technology and citizen participation. In addition to the 50 networks with the V1 sensor, the first contracts have already been signed for the rollout of the new sensor in various locations, worldwide.
AI Counts Traffic
The new device is the result of extensive development with various partners to achieve a high-performance solution.
"We are deploying our custom-trained AI model for traffic detection today which already has high levels of accuracy, but we also have the ability to regularly update this model remotely to each device to add further enhancements to deal with new scenarios and traffic patterns." says Dr. Péter I. Pápics, chief data scientist.
Networks of Telraam S2 devices have custom dashboards designed to allow urban mobility professionals to manage numerous devices and engage their many users and volunteers. These devices are also available to individual citizens for collecting local traffic data, and they get free connections subsidised by Telraam.