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How it works
The Hi-Lighter product was developed to provide a system for taking high quality images of vehicles for automated damage recording and auditing purposes, and to provide a simple means of presenting the evidence via hard copy or e-mail for customer information.
The Hi-Lighter system is based on the same principle as a photographic studio, which provides a controlled environment, including lighting, to ensure a clear consistent image of the vehicle is taken from all angles. Controlled lighting is an important element of the system. In the same manner that a photographic studio uses diffused lighting to reduce shadows and point glare onto a subject we use up-lighter units housed within a drive through canopy to diffuse lighting onto the vehicle, creating an even distribution of light and eliminating glare and bright spots.
The canopy is analogous to the photographic studio, which screens extraneous lighting from the sun and provides the matt surface to reflect light onto the vehicle in an evenly distributed manner, much as daylight is distributed by reflection from the surrounding objects. In addition it houses the camera and related hardware. Thus we can confidently take images at night and control lighting artefacts from the sun.
During the image capture sequence vehicles are momentarily stopped at the barrier whilst images are captured and downloaded. Our hardware interfaces directly with the barrier control using the existing loop detector system. Images from all cameras are taken simultaneously as the vehicle passes over the loop detector. The process takes approximately seven seconds for each vehicle which is equivalent to the cycle time of the barrier.
Cameras are positioned to take in the whole vehicle giving a record of all vehicles arriving at the car park. The cameras are different to normal video cameras and take a series of high definition still images, again analogous to the photographic studio. The operator can then zoom in without loss of detail to check for small scratches on the vehicle. Zooming into a video based system does not provide any further detail and simply pixelates, producing a “blocky” image because the source quality is insufficient.
The cameras we use are based on the latest 12 MegaPixel camera technology and therefore produce an image quality over 25 times greater than standard video cameras at 4272 x 2848 pixels.
The Hi-Lighter system not only produces higher quality images compared to video solutions, but is also much more efficient with storage capacity. Video cameras are designed for moving images and take frames at 25 images per second, which results in excessive storage requirements at high definition. Our system provides potentially over one month of back history using only a modest size hard disk of 1 Terabyte.
The Hi-Lighter software is designed for easy search and location of images. All the operator needs to do is to type in the number plate or search by time and date to the display respective camera views on screen. Video based systems require a more complex frame by frame comparison to identify damage.
Evidence can be easily presented by zooming in to the region of interest and then either directly printing to the local printer or clicking on the e-mail send button. The on-screen view may be automatically embedded into a .pdf file and prepared ready for instant dispatch to the customer, confirming any pre-existing damage. The operation takes only a few seconds and can be easily handled by an operator familiar with standard computer controls. Being a networked system there is no restriction on the number of operators who can access the image database either locally or remotely to view and print images. In addition we provide online technical support and maintenance via remote link (assumes remote access is available via your IT services division).
The efficiency of the Hi-Lighter system in locating pre-existing damage is one of its key advantages over a manual process, saving hidden costs associated with customer services’ time to gather evidence and prepare a response to the customer.