SenseTime Shortlisted to Help NEXCO Central Japan Upgrade Expressway Monitoring System

Kyoto – March 27, 2020 – SenseTime, a leading global artificial intelligence (AI) company that specializes in computer vision and deep learning, announced today that its subsidiary, SenseTime Japan, was shortlisted as one of the finalists to partner with Central Nippon Expressway Company Limited (NEXCO Central Japan) to upgrade its expressway monitoring system for traffic tracking and analysis across Central Japan.

NEXCO Central Japan, serving as a leading expressway company in Japan, is committed to travellers’ safety as its top priority. Recent additions of CCTV cameras on its expressways will aim to better manage and improve response times to different traffic situations. With the increased amount of footage to monitor and screen daily, the company requires an advanced computerized system to support control centres in identifying abnormal traffic conditions. Meanwhile, NEXCO Central Japan is also hoping to improve and enable its camera systems to adjust to illumination changes under sunlight and changes of the viewing angle when cameras pan, tilt and zoom.

The requirements for the solicitation exercise include developing and applying the platform for high-precision detection of abnormal traffic situations as well as monitoring the traffic conditions with existing CCTV cameras on the expressways. Subsequently, the platform should also be able to perform field testing and analyse video footages for traffic management purposes.

Leveraging on its technology in deep learning and autonomous driving, SenseTime Japan developed a traffic video analysis algorithm that is able to identify and track various types of vehicles over several lanes with high accuracy. This also helps recognize the movements of the expressway workers and road debris, as well as detect traffic congestion and traffic incidents such as wrong-way driving, stranded vehicles, etc. The algorithm also has high robustness of object tracking under occlusions and the AI-empowered platform is not only cost effective but also durable, reliable and widely adaptable to different environments. Importantly, there is no need to replace existing cameras or alter the camera angles.

Furthermore, SenseTime’s intelligent video analysis platform has been initially approved and will commence testing soon. SenseTime Japan will collaborate with NEXCO Central Japan to conduct traffic analysis to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the expressway management.

“Following the establishment of the AI Autonomous Driving Park in Joso, Japan last year, we are hoping to expand our global presence in the transportation field. We see this potential partnership with NEXCO Central Japan as a valuable opportunity to introduce our cutting-edge video analysis technology to Japan’s transportation sector,” said Mr. Lao Shihong, CEO of SenseTime Japan and General Manager of Automobile Business Division. “SenseTime will continue to look for opportunities to work with different global partners to offer more transportation-related applications to different markets to create a safer and smarter travelling experience.

SenseTime Japan will collaborate with NEXCO Central Japan to test its intelligent video analysis platform for the monitor of highway traffic.