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TECHNOLOGY
Israeli
container ID solution keeps American ports and rails safe
By Allison Kaplan Sommer March
20, 2005
Coming and going isn't as easy as
it used to be. In a post-September 11 world, with concerns
that weaponry can be hidden in any kind of container and
vehicle, governments and private companies want to keep
track of the movement of containers on the move as
carefully as they possibly can.
Quick, effective identification of cars entering crowded
or sensitive location, crates and containers being shipped
in and out of ports and stations in major population
centers, has become crucial - both for security reasons
and in order to keep the costs of moving the goods
reasonable.
Israeli system and software company Hi-Tech Solutions is
in the front lines of keeping population centers safe,
with its optical character recognition (OCR) solutions
which use advanced image processing software and hardware.
Their SeeContainer system is already in place and working
in southern California, where the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security has installed it for the central station
where all rail cars leaving the Los Angeles region branch
out to the major railroads across the United States.
Founded in 1992, Hi-Tech Solutions spent eight years
developing its OCR technology before its products hit the
market in 2000. It's all based on computer vision,
according to the company's president and CEP Phil Elovic.
Their systems can read camera images and extract the
identification data, with the recognition result then
logged together with the images and entered into a
computer.
"First we developed our recognition technology and
then we found our two niches - reading license plates and
containers," Elovic told ISRAEL21c.
The company's products are grouped into two main product
lines: the SeeContainer and the SeeCar recognition
systems.
SeeCar product line is a set of vision-based license plate
recognition systems that detect and read vehicle license
plates for security purposes - but also for, parking lot
billing and other applications.
In license plate recognition, the advantage of SeeCar over
existing competitors is that it is uniquely "robust
and versatile," according to Elovic.
"We supply recognition systems that read license
plates in 30 countries around the world, with a huge
variety of characters - from Korean to Arabic," he
said.
The US poses a special problem, he said, making it by far
the most difficult country for which to provide license
plates detection
"Just think," he said, "most countries have
a uniform plate with a standard number of symbols. The
United States not only has a different license plate for
every state with a huge variety of decoration on them with
various graphics and colors, but vanity plates are
permitted that can have an unusually low or high number of
letters and numbers."
The other major component of the company's business is
their product line called SeeContainer.
"There is a tremendous need in ports, railyards, and
shipyards for containers to be quickly identified in real
time. We work to adapt to any environment so that
containers can be tracked," said Elovic.
SeeContainer consists of recognition systems and software
that tracks, reads and checks Shipping Container
identification markings. When the containers come in on
trucks, the system recognizes both the container ID, the
license plate on the truck plate, and other forms of ID if
they exist.
The SeeContainer system interfaces the information through
cameras and sensors, processes the information, and
outputs the results directly on a computer.
To record high-quality ID images under all types of
conditions, OCR systems employ multiple cameras for each
target. For example, three separate cameras capture
container IDs and up to two are used to record the chassis
and truck plate numbers. Multiple cameras allow the system
to overcome sunlight, glare, fog, darkness and help
clarify damaged, dirty or illegible ID markings on trucks
and containers.
The complex applications program classifies the ID numbers
and passes the results to marine clerks in the terminal
control center, where accurate entries are processed and
exceptions - trucks that do not match up with pre-filed
data - are checked.
Close to 85 percent of trucks entering and exiting
terminals can be processed electronically with no
intervention from clerks using the system.
The SeeContainer line includes the SeeCrane - when
containers are lifted onto a ship, the identification
system; automatically reads and records the container code
number as it is handled - as well as SeeTrain, a container
recognition system that reads containers riding on the
railroads together with railcar tags.
For its California rail project with the US Homeland
Security Department, Hi-Tech Solutions created a custom
system to read the label of every container and to check
it against the manifests, checking its origin and
destination.
"It was a very difficult project and we were proud
they chose us to do it," said Elovic.
In this location, together with others on the West Coast
of the United States, the company worked in cooperation
with San-Diego-based APS Technology, an installation
contractor and systems integrator.
In addition to security worries, the SeeContainer system
also dramatically increases efficiency at ports, and have
changed the terminals that handle containers in
fundamental ways - making them more of a factory line than
a warehouse, as the technology allows containers to move
through them far more quickly than when they were
individually identified by employees, saving millions for
taxpayers.
Both levels of technology reduce dependence on marine
clerks, as OCR eliminates the need for clerks to type in
data collected at port and pedestal gates, while GPS and
yard management systems make it redundant for clerks to
verbally instruct yard crane operators and to record their
moves.
As a result, the company found itself at the center of a
major labor dispute a few years ago in several other ports
on the West Coast of the U.S., when longshoreman and union
labor fought the technology that increased efficiency and
resulted in job loss. In 2003, a 10-day lockout that
seriously disrupted the commerce that passes through West
Coast ports as a result of union protests over the
technology.
"All of that is resolved now and there has been an
upsurge in orders for West Coast terminals," said
Elovic.
Elovic said he was pleased and proud that his company's
system was chosen to be part of the security backbone in
the Athens Olympic Games, which took place without
incident.
Their next major project is especially meaningful because
it will be close to home: the company is installing its
system at Ben-Gurion Airport, and will make it the first
airport in the world in which every vehicle that enters
the airport will not only have the car stopped and
examined by security personnel, but will have its license
plates scanned as well.
Hi-Tech Solution's R&D offices are in Migdal Haemek,
on the outskirts of Nazareth, and its administration,
management and operations are located in Rishon Lezion.
When working on international projects, the company
usually teams up overseas with selected local companies
who provide complementary technology products and
services.
Elovic, who has led the Hi-Tech Solutions since 2000, says
that although the company has had difficulty in some
specific markets because of political reasons,
"generally, in most markets, Israeli technology is
considered to be an advantage. Saying that our technology
is developed in Israel is like having a quality stamp of
approval."
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