We're Watching Your Car
After the September 11th terrorist attacks, new technology will help determine who comes and who goes out of parking lots in Washington DC and other places before long. If Computer Recognition Systems in Cambridge, Massachusetts has their way, they will be used in every office parking lot, public parking lot and garage system in the near future.
The $150,000 system uses video cameras and computers to screen cars into a database and identify the car. The system is called AVSITA or Automated Vehicle Identification and Screening Technology Application. In addition to the cameras, it includes biometrics, can read your license plate and measure the axle weight instantly to determine if the weight of your vehicle is unexpected. Cars are also given a radio frequency tag that is read by the system and all of this information is then used to determine whether the car should go in or out.
"It's a system to bring vehicles in and out of high security facilities, at speed -- meaning as fast as they can come by -- for a known group of consistent, frequent day-to-day parkers," said Salvatore D'Agostino, the company's CEO.
Current Installations
The first systems are being installed in Washington DC to protect government buildings and move people in and out of parking. Employees go through a registration process that lists who they are, where they work, and more information on the employee and the car that they drive.
From that point on, whoever has access to the system knows who comes and goes, and when they do it. They can tell what car they’ve driven, whether they’ve come alone or with someone else.
