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VisionDesign complete (stages 1-6), not built

RoadSense Count Kit

Battery traffic-count recorders, counted overnight on your own Edge Hub

Strap a camera recorder to a sign post for 2 hours to 7 days, then turn the video into classified turning-movement, bike and pedestrian counts overnight on an office box, with a QC report.

Who buys it
Small and mid-size traffic-data collection firms and consultancies that already hold county and DOT count contracts.
Why it pays
A 12-hour turning-movement count sells for about $450-630, and cloud processing costs about EUR 15 per video hour. Flat-fee local processing saves about $35k a year for a firm doing 200 counts (est.).
Target price
$790 field kit + $149/firm/month, unlimited processing (target)
First-minute wow
Card in at 6 pm, a 4-intersection work order counted by morning with a QC report and no video uploaded.
See the CAD designConcept page
RoadSense Count Kit concept: the idea and where each part goes
The concept. The CAD design is below, under Printable CAD.

What the research found

And how this design answers it

  • Council procurement takes 12-24 months -> sell to the survey firms that already hold the contracts; their deliverable does not change
  • Funded incumbents (Vivacity, Miovision, GoodVision) -> compete on the marginal cost of a count: flat fee, processing on a box the firm owns, bring-your-own video accepted
  • Permanent sensors need mains, LTE and electricians -> battery-only temporary kit, strap mounted, about 1.9 W
  • AI counts must be trusted -> every job ships a QC report, flagged intervals and a manual audit tool; video kept for recounts
  • Privacy on public roads -> no plate reading; video encrypted on the card with the firm's key and never uploaded
  • Video cannot do FHWA axle classes -> stated plainly: light, heavy, bus, motorcycle, bike, pedestrian

Use case

Four 12-hour turning-movement counts for a county work order

Field techData analystCounty traffic engineer

  1. 01Trigger: the county orders 12-hour counts at 4 intersections for Tuesday
  2. 02Deploy: Monday evening the tech straps a kit to a post at each site, aims it with the phone preview and sets the schedule
  3. 03Detect: cards go into the office Edge Hub on Wednesday; the analyst draws approach gates and the hub counts all 4 sites overnight
  4. 04Act: on Thursday the analyst checks flagged intervals, audits two 15-minute blocks per site and exports the CSV and PDF

Outcome: Delivered a day earlier, with about $780 of per-hour processing fees avoided on one work order (est.)

How it works

Architecture

  1. 01

    Sense: Pi Zero 2 W + Camera Module 3 Wide records 720p15 H.264 to an encrypted 256 GB card, about 1.9 W from a 30 Ah LiFePO4

  2. 02

    Decide: the office Edge Hub (Pi 5 + Hailo-8) runs detection, tracking and approach gates faster than real time (target 4x)

  3. 03

    Send: only job state, counts and optional Cat-M unit status go over MQTT/TLS; video stays with the firm

  4. 04

    Tell: SMS to the tech when a unit is moved or low on battery; email to the analyst when a job is done

Hardware

Real parts, buyable today

Bill of materials: about $400 per field kit including pole, battery and lock (est.); Edge Hub about $400 once per firm.

BlockPartWhy this part
RecorderRaspberry Pi Zero 2 WHardware H.264 encode at about 1.5 W; Wi-Fi AP for phone setup
CameraRaspberry Pi Camera Module 3 Wide (IMX708)One wide camera covers a 4-leg intersection from a corner post
TimeDS3231 RTCCount bins need correct time; about 1.2 s per week drift
Power12.8 V 30 Ah LiFePO4 + Pololu D36V28F5About 7 days of recording in a bought weatherproof case
CountingIEMI Edge Hub (Pi 5 8GB + AI HAT+ 26 TOPS)One box per firm processes every kit's video overnight

Mechanical

Printable CAD

9 parts, generated from code and checked as closed solids. Pick a part to inspect it, or download the STL files to print.

See the CAD parts render
RoadSense Count Kit printable parts, rendered from the CAD
Render of the printable parts from the actual CAD. Not yet printed or photographed.

Loading the CAD…

Real CAD · drag to rotate · scroll to zoomReal CAD · swipe sideways

Open risks we are working on

  • Firms trust Miovision and GoodVision; accuracy must be proven against their own manual counts
  • Pi 5 software H.264 decode may not reach 4x real time for batch jobs
  • Heat in the sealed recorder head under Texas sun
  • Poles on public right-of-way: permits and liability insurance stay with the firm

Design stage only: nothing on this page is for sale. Specifications and prices are targets.