Skin detecting CCTV to be used in congestion charging zone?

Published on 29 Feb 2008

A company that has developed a CCTV camera that can detect the number of humans in a moving car believe it could find use as a way of enforcing Multiple Occupancy Vehicle (MOV) lanes.

The camera works by using infra-red rays that pick up on the presence of human skin. If there is more than one occupant of a vehicle then no action is taken but if there is only one human detected then the camera will record the number plate of the vehicle. This information would then be used to issue fines.

Professor John Tyrer, professor of optical instrumentation at Loughborough University where the technology was developed said:

"At the moment the Congestion Charge in London is not at all successful - the average speed in that zone has gone down since the charge was introduced. It's changed the demographic distribution slightly but the net result is it's not made a big deal of difference. And it's not seen by the people in there as actually anything other than a flat tax.
"So if you charge a single occupant car but you don't charge multiple occupant cars you've then got a logic which says I've got to change my behaviour because I can begin to see the reason behind this."

Leeds City Council introduced the first MOV lane in 1998 and is considering trialling the technology.