TRAFFIC control experts at Siemens in Poole have produced a detector that can tell how many pedestrians are waiting to cross a road.

They say the innovation will be especially useful in areas with high numbers of pedestrians, such as shopping centres, entertainments venues and sports stadiums.

The Heimdall Kerbside Volumetric Pedestrian Detector uses radar technology to show how busy a pedestrian waiting area is. Traffic control systems can then respond accordingly.

Product manager Priscilla Boyd said Heimdall was a home-grown Siemens product that was simple and cost-effective.

“Using advanced radar technology, Heimdall Kerbside Volumetric measures the occupancy of the detection zone,” she said.

“With zero, low, medium and high volume output categories, the new detectors can be used, for example, to increase pedestrian priority and reduce pedestrian waiting times when pedestrian numbers are high.

“Pedestrian priority can be reduced with lower occupation levels, with pedestrian demand cancelled in cases where pedestrians move away from the waiting area.”

The gadgetry is largely immune from changing environmental conditions such as sun, shadows, snow and fog, which can affect other vision-based detection systems, Siemens said. It is compact enough to minimise street clutter, the company added.

Each detector contains an advanced planar radar antenna system and a sophisticated digital signal processing engine.

Siemens recently announced that Poole would be the base of a new service operations centre helping keep traffic flowing on Britain’s roads. It will bring together a field service contact centre, systems support and the existing Poole-based consultancy services team, and will be able to remotely manage local authority road networks.

Among Siemens’ major contract wins in recent times was a five-year deal, announced earlier this year, to upgrade and operate the equipment used to enforce London’s congestion charge and low-emission zone.

Siemens, the world’s largest engineering company, was established in the United Kingdom more than 170 years ago and now employs 14,000 people in the UK, including at its base in Sopers Lane, Poole.