SUBSYSTEM 03
Adaptive Passenger Gate
Accurate passenger counting without stopping the flow. IR-based occupancy detection works through tinted glass.
CAPABILITIES
What the Adaptive Passenger Gate sees
Four overlapping detection zones capture every seat — at speed, in any light, through any tint.
Front Row Detection
Dedicated optics for driver and front passenger seats. Counts heads, not silhouettes — even with hats, glasses, or visors.
Rear Row Detection
Side-mounted Vidar PAX modules look into the second row through side glass to capture children, adults, and pets reliably.
Third-Row Counting
For SUVs, minivans, and large campers — third-row occupants are detected through rear-quarter windows.
Detection Through Tinted Glass
Active IR illumination pierces factory tints and aftermarket films — no driver disruption, no false counts.
HIGHLIGHTED FEATURES
Exceptional image clarity, unmatched performance.
Precise passenger detection in the front and rear seats of moving vehicles keeps the lane flowing. The lane cameras do one job: count the heads across up to three rows, through tinted glass, at lane speed. Seatbelt and mobile-phone-use detection are a separate job, handled by the gantry-mounted standalone PAX camera. The imaging system optimises its own zoom and focus, and dual optics capture more light in every condition. Uncompromising accuracy. Every vehicle. Every time.
Clear imaging through windscreens
Without impeding the driver's visibility.
First and second row detection
Total number of occupants per row, returned in the results.
High-quality images
Full cabin frames kept with every count — and the imaging the standalone gantry camera uses for seatbelt and mobile-phone usage control.
Self-adjusting for perfect imaging
Optimises its own zoom and focus from the onboard gyroscope, accelerometer, and laser telemetry.
Strong encryption
Sensitive data protected — in the camera and on the wire.
No missed vehicles
An IR barrier across the lane fires the capture. The standalone gantry camera carries its own eye-safe Class 1 laser trigger instead.
SEE IT IN ACTION
The Adaptive Passenger Gate, in 34 seconds.
Watch a vehicle approach, ANPR and MMR fire pre-gate, the IR scan sweep three rows of occupants through tinted glass, and the driver-monitor sign cycle from Wait to Go.
No sound · 34 seconds · loops automatically
HOW IT WORKS
IR-based occupancy in four moments
Vehicles roll through at lane speed. Vidar PAX cameras pulse near-infrared into the cabin, capture the reflected signature, and post an occupancy count to the Globessey Data Server — all in under 4 seconds per vehicle.
Trigger
An IR barrier across the lane wakes the PAX modules the moment a vehicle breaks the beam — no inductive loop cut into the road.
Illuminate
Synchronized IR illuminators flash the cabin invisibly. Eye-safe wavelengths, no flicker, no light pollution.
Detect
Onboard inference identifies heads, torsos, and seat presence across all rows — discarding bags, headrests, and reflections.
Report
Counts and confidence scores are posted to the GDS, linked to the ANPR plate read, and routed to your booking or tolling backend.
THE RECORD
What one vehicle writes as it rolls past.
The headcount and the vehicle identity land in the same record, so a manifest can be reconciled against who was actually in the car — not against what was booked.
Values shown are one illustrative event. Fields marked as an option are fitted only where a site asks for them.
What every vehicle writes to GDS.
One pass at stop-and-go or lane speed — below 30 km/h — produces one complete occupancy record, linked to the plate and booking. These are the numbers a SOLAS manifest can stand on.
| Data | What's recorded | Delivery KPI |
|---|---|---|
| Event metadata | Site, lane, event ID, timestamp. | 99.5% counting |
| Number plate | Front and rear plate with country of registration. | 99.7% read · 99.7% nationality |
| Make & model | Manufacturer and model recognised per vehicle. | per event |
| Vehicle class | Vehicle category derived from make-and-model recognition. | 95% |
| Occupancy — front | Driver and front passenger, counted through the windscreen. | 93–95% |
| Occupancy — rear | Second and third rows, counted through the side glass; total per vehicle. | 80–85% |
| Flags | Timeout flag per event; optional height alert from the IR barrier. | per event |
| Image evidence | Front and rear overview plus IR passenger-cabin photos, attached to the event. | every event |
KPIs are the acceptance thresholds our deployments are contracted to meet — measured across real traffic, not staged demos.
Why 760 nm near-infrared
Near-infrared at 760 nm defeats the three things that break cabin imaging: windshield reflection, window tint, and shadow. Unlike a visible flash, it needs no recharge — the illuminators run continuously, so the camera takes multiple cabin photos milliseconds apart and keeps the clearest frame. It's the same sensing family the car industry relies on for in-cabin driver monitoring, and drivers barely notice it.
Lane anatomy
HARDWARE STACK
What's in the Adaptive Passenger Gate
Per lane: one Vidar PAX at the front, one on each side, and an optional fourth at the rear — an IR illuminator beside each camera, and one TrafficSpot PC pulling it all together.
3–4 PER LANE
Vidar PAX Camera
One at the front looking through the windscreen, one on each side — angled slightly into the oncoming vehicle — reading the rows through the side glass, plus an optional rear unit for exit reads. Dual global-shutter sensors (colour + IR) at up to 100 FPS and motorised 3.3× zoom that self-adjusts via gyroscope and laser telemetry. An IR barrier across the lane fires the capture, so no inductive loop is cut into the road.
1 BESIDE EACH CAMERA
IR Illuminator
Eye-safe 760 nm near-infrared array — 12 high-power LEDs, pulse-synced with its camera, intensity adjustable in 100 steps with parity flash (alternating intensity on odd and even frames). The camera captures multiple cabin frames milliseconds apart and keeps the clearest, reading through factory and aftermarket tints.
1 PER 2 LANES
TrafficSpot PC
The rugged, fanless gate computer that turns cameras into a subsystem. It takes the trigger, requests frames from every camera for the exact time window, runs the Carmen ANPR and PAX engines, assembles the complete event package — plate, occupancy, images — and deploys it to the Globessey Data Server, buffering locally if the link drops.
Seatbelt and mobile-phone-use detection are project options on the gantry-mounted standalone PAX camera, not on the lane count. Face capture depends on the light — cabin frames can burn out in strong sun, and parity flashing is the countermeasure where facial work matters. Full-row counting works at up to 50 km/h (front-only to 90 km/h) — lanes are simply designed around the sub-30 km/h sweet spot. Full Vidar PAX specifications →
THE PRODUCT FILM
Vidar PAX, up close.
The official product film — how the camera sees into the cabin, what the dual optics capture, and what the results look like.
COMPLIANCE
Built for SOLAS passenger registration.
Counting and recording everyone on board before departure is a legal duty — and hard to do by hand when passengers stay in their vehicles. Automated in-vehicle occupancy counting makes the headcount accurate and auditable without stopping the flow.
SOLAS & EU Directive 98/41/EC
Supports the requirement (as amended by Directive 2017/2109) to count and record all persons on board before a passenger ship departs.
Accurate, even in-vehicle
Front, rear, and third-row occupancy counted through tinted glass at lane speed — no manual headcount, no roll-down.
Auditable manifest record
Every count is time-stamped in the Globessey Data Server, ready to reconcile against the manifest and export for inspection.
PROVEN AT A FERRY PORT
Managing passenger boarding at Destination Gotland.
Vidar PAX cameras manage passenger boarding at Destination Gotland's ferries in Sweden — counting the occupants of every car at the check-in lanes so the headcount, the booking, and the manifest agree before anyone reaches the ramp. In production since 2022, through Baltic winters and peak-season summer sailings.
Read the case study →SCOPE OF SUPPLY
What we deliver — and what stays yours.
We supply the recognition layer: the cameras, the readers, the engines that turn a moving vehicle into a record, and the data platform underneath. The lane itself — its civils, its power, its steel and its screens — is procured and installed by you or your integrator, to your own standards and suppliers.
Delivered by Adaptive Recognition
- Front and side passenger-counting Vidar cameras with their external illuminators
- Rear Vidar ANPR camera
- Triggering units
- The industrial gate control PC
- Globessey Data Server, on your own hardware (optional)
Provided by the port or its integrator
- Electrical cabinet and power supply
- Infrastructure and cabling
- Traffic-control display
- Kiosk, barrier and traffic lamp, where the lane needs them
- Integration into your ticketing system
Where Adaptive Passenger Gate earns its keep.
Wherever vehicles roll through a checkpoint, Adaptive Passenger Gate counts every occupant without slowing traffic.
Ferry Terminals
Count occupants of every car before boarding so manifest and headcount stay in sync, even at peak departures.
Ro-Ro Boarding
Verify each car's occupant count against the booking before the ramp — no manual headcount, no surprise upsells at the booth.
Peak Holiday Sailings
Count occupants across mixed traffic at peak holiday sailings so manifest, safety counts, and onboard catering stay in sync end-to-end.
COMMON QUESTIONS
What operators ask about passenger counting.
Does the counting run on the camera itself?
The Vidar PAX camera captures the cabin images; the counting itself runs on the lane's TrafficSpot PC, which pairs the occupancy result with the plate read and posts the complete event to the Globessey Data Server. That split keeps the cameras simple and the counting logic centrally upgradable.
Does it really see through tinted windows?
Yes — across our tests and partner deployments, factory and aftermarket tints are read reliably. The honest exceptions: a few luxury models and illegal reflective tints with IR/UV-resistant coatings can't be imaged through, and those vehicles are flagged rather than guessed. One more we'll be upfront about: some newer electric cars ship with irradiated (metal-coated, heated) front windscreens that the front camera can't see through. Because that coating is on the windscreen only, the side cameras still read the cabin cleanly through the side windows — so occupancy counting keeps working.
How fast can vehicles drive through?
Counting both rows works up to 50 km/h, and front-seat-only counting up to 90 km/h. Port check-in lanes are designed around a comfortable sub-30 km/h flow — well inside the envelope, which is what keeps the delivery KPIs high.
See the Adaptive Passenger Gate
running at full speed.
Book a 30-minute consultation. We'll review your terminal layout, traffic mix, and tinting profile — and walk you through what an Adaptive Passenger Gate deployment looks like.