Poliscan rear shot tested today

[not so swift]

I have a question for anyone that may know anything about the Poliscan speed camera. At night, does it flash when it takes a picture?

I found a Poliscan on the freeway taking shots from the rear as cars passed it. It was out in the open and under a street light (which is unusual) so it could be seen as you approached it. The problem was that it was 7.00pm on a Saturday night and there was a ton of traffic heading into the city. So after 5 passes in an hour i finally got a couple of clear runs. Its amazing how many people are quite happy to drive at 70 or 80kph in a 100kph zone, and then pull in front of you if youre passing them at 100kph!

My rear heads are inside the tail lights at a 45 degree angle to the road. I really wanted to test this angle as there has been some discussion on weather it is correct or not.

I left the rear number plate on so that i get a fine if it wasnt jammed. I used the speedo from the GPS read out rather than the cars speedo. At 100kph on the Sti-R GPS, the car speedo reads 107kph. And i made sure i was in the left hand lane, closest to the Poliscan. I dont want to give away speeds i was doing, but i would have got a fine if it got me.

So the first run i was doing ***kph by the GPS (***kph by the cars speedo). As i went past i watched in the rear view mirrors for a flash, but didnt see one. The second run i went another 7kph faster and again, no flash. Both runs should have produced a fine.

If it flashes at night, then there was none as i went by. If it doesnt, i will expect two fines in the mail. I will be back in a few weeks to let you know what happens.

On another note, i was driving to work two days ago and got a laser alert on the STi-R and a "Poliscan Speed" alert on the LI. I knew it was from the front cos the STi-R doesnt alert to a shot from the rear. I have driven that road more than 30 times in the last 6 weeks and never had an alert. I looked and couldnt see anything.

I turned around and went back past the area in the opposite direction. The lanes in one direction were separated from the lanes in the other direction by small trees and bushes and i didnt get any alerts. I turned around and went past a second time. I got the same alerts in exactly the same spot. Again, i couldnt see anything that would have caused the alert. So i turned around and went back yet again. This time i got a "Poliscan Speed" alert from the rear on the LI. On the third pass i got the same alerts in the same place. I dont know what was there, but i couldnt see it! They had hidden well!

I have been down the same road two more times since then and had no alerts. How do they make these things so invisible!!!!

[nano]

I have a question for anyone that may know anything about the Poliscan speed camera. At night, does it flash when it takes a picture

Vitronic offers a infrared flash at 890nm (invisible), a red flash at 650nm (visible) and a white flash.

It depends on the situation, which flash is used. If the police needs a picture of the drivers face, a red flashed is mostly used. White flash is often used in stationary housings and the infrared only if a picture of the drivers face isn't necessary.

Great results, by the way!

[opilot87]

Interesting info on the flashes. When they send you a fine in the mail here, they usually show your 3 images, one of the car, one zoomed on the number plate and one zoomed on your face. So hopefully they will only ever use the visible flashes.

Very interested to here the result. Wouldn't it have been safer/easier to take of your rear number plate temporarily to do the testing? That way you could do it with the jammer off and also with it on at some ...different speeds.

[qwsoftware]

Interesting info on the flashes.

x2

Suppose they don't need your face - they changed the law quite a few years ago as now the owner of the vehicle (or company) must know who was driving the vehicle at all times, therefore an invisible flash may be possible.

Also a Poliscan rear setup would not take a picture of the face - Anyone in WA got a ticket of a rear setup? Wonder if it only shows 2 photos rather than the third one of the face.
Certainly would not talk about removing number plate off in an open forum - these forums could be monitored by the authorities.

That is quite worrying about getting the Poliscan alert but not being able to see it not so swift, must have been one as the LI recognised its code.
Are they resorting to putting them up trees!!! Can you post a google map location of where the alerts were not so swift? Wasn't one of the speed camera vans?

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-...meras-in-vans/

[nano]

Certainly would not talk about removing number plate off in an open forum - these forums could be monitored by the authorities.

And it could also distort the results:
PoliscanSpeed has to mark the speeding vehicle with a frame. A valid photo has to achieve certain criteria, especially regarding this frame. One important point is, that this frame includes one rear wheel (at rear shots) and the license plate. If there is no license plate the speeding value could be refused.

For rear shots the frame must include one back wheel and for front shots the frame must include one front wheel.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any rear photo, so here are some examples of some front photos:
As you can see in this photo, the frame includes one front wheel and the license plate.
Here is one example for an invalid photo. The frame is on the back wheel and does not include the license plate.
Vitronic had major problems with invalid photos (the frame was anyplace) up to software version 1.5.3. The issue was that PoliscanSpeed measures your speed from 50 to 25 metres, but takes the picture far behind the last measurement (between 10 to 20 metres, dependent on the lane). During high traffic it could happen that the computer needs longer to take a picture and therefore the frame was on the left side of the vehicle, instead of the front.

[qwsoftware]

Interesting stuff nano,

So I think I understand how this is working:-
The Poliscan is computing the frame where it is measuring the speed and then overlaying on the photo hence if it does not like up on a certain area of the car, the photo is rejected as evidence (but I assume this is a manual process)

[not so swift]

Wouldn't it have been safer/easier to take of your rear number plate temporarily to do the testing?

Yes, but i didnt know if the unit gave a visible flash or not when it took a picture. So if there was no flash, and i didnt have my number plate on, they wouldnt be able to send out a ticket and therefore i wouldnt know if the LI worked or not.

[not so swift]

Can you post a google map location of where the alerts were not so swift? Wasn't one of the speed camera vans?

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-...meras-in-vans/

There werent any vans on the road. I would post a google map of the location if someone can tell me how to do it!!!

[qwsoftware]

[QUOTE=not so swift;835023]

I would post a google map of the location if someone can tell me how to do it!!!

I use this site http://www.nearmap.com
Then just right click and share to get URL.

It is quite cool site as you can do back in time and see maps from weeks ago. I think it is only Australia

[not so swift]

ok, it was in the clump of trees where the green dot should be.

http://www.nearmap.com/?q=Poliscan@-...k&nmd=20110215