In Portugal, drivers or passengers of a car are prohibited from throwing any object out of the window, whether it be cigarette butts, cans and packaging, or food scraps, under the excuse of them being biodegradable. Fines can reach €300, but catching offenders is not easy. Artificial Intelligence can help…
In the United Kingdom, about two million pieces of litter are discarded per day, with almost 70% estimated to be cans and beverage bottles, many of which are thrown out of moving car windows.
Now, local authorities are resorting to Artificial Intelligence to help combat this crisis, through a new equipment called LitterCam, which is already being tested in eight locations across the country.
The technology turns regular CCTV cameras into radars that continuously monitor the road to identify and fine occupants of vehicles who throw any type of objects out of the car window. The software has been designed to detect even small pieces of litter, such as cigarette butts.
LitterCam analyzes CCTV images, records the license plate of the vehicle in case of an offense, and sends the data to proceed with the respective fine.
Andrew Kemp, co-founder and CEO of Littercam, stated in an exclusive interview with ITVNews that “there is a large part of society that does not believe there is any deterrent, and that they will not be caught.”
