In daily life you might not notice the use of optical character recognition (OCR) but it is being used in a wide variety of ways. For example the police force use an OCR system to capture number plates of driving cars, match them with a database (for both road tax and insurance) and within seconds they know if the driver is breaking the law.
For the ports industry the use of OCR systems is somewhat similar – the containers are being scanned (albeit the numbers displayed on the containers) and matched with a database, which is often a Terminal Operating Systems (TOS). Over the last couple of years, the use of OCR systems in ports and terminals around the world has seen a steady increase as the system increases productivity (the containers can travel at a certain speed pass the OCR system as it captures the numbers on the container) and reduces congestion.
Therefore when purchasing an OCR system the return of potential labour savings, streamlining of processes, increase in productivity and many other soft measurements has to be taken in to account. The benefits of automating a gate can be recognised throughout the operation, depending upon how the technology is implemented. For example, if a terminal has an appointment system and chooses to install technology to identify the trucker and his associated appointment, the transaction can be automatically processed once OCR is deployed. Of course there are many variations to the successful implementation of such technology, but terminal operators are realising large returns from relatively small investments.
Although the economic downturn might have caused a dip in the sale of OCR systems, with many projects coming back on-stream, OCR providers across the world report healthy record books and all closed 2011 on a positive note.
Good 2011
According to Willem Dauwen, Junior Business Development Manager at Belgium-based Camco Technologies, 2011 was a very versatile year which brought an array of breakthroughs and exciting new challenges for the company. “Camco welcomed the opportunity to actively steer and mould the design of green-field terminals, such as Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven (CTW) in Germany, Moerdijk Container Terminal (MCT) in the Netherlands and the MSC operated FOS 2XL in Fos-sur-Mer, France,” said Dauwen.
Another OCR provider – Israel-based Hi-Tech Solutions (HTS) – saw an increase in demand for state-of-the-art OCR systems and responded with the launch of some new products. “This past year, HTS introduced the next evolution in our OCR products for gates and cranes. Called ‘SeeGate3’ and ‘SeeCrane3’ respectively, these products utilise IP based cameras and enhanced software engines to provide lower cost installations as well as a streamlined commissioning period. The next generation of systems enhances HTS ability to remotely monitor these systems,” says Meta Rotenberg, VP Marketing and Business Development at Hi-Tech Solutions.
The company has also enhanced their Damage Inspection systems and is developing the first ever damage inspection system on a non-platform quay crane. Furthermore, monitoring and alerting tools were enhanced with the introduction of the OCR performance dashboard. Customers as well as the IT Support staff utilise these tools for day-to-day monitoring and system analysis.
“To meet the challenge of integrating simply to multiple systems, HTS continues to utilise GCS as a ‘middleware’. New RFID, CCTV and PDS systems were integrated with the GCS solution,” Rotenberg added.
“Although Camco has been busy with signing deals we should not forget to mention the efforts that were made by the R&D department in 2011,” said Dauwen. The company is working hard to reveal some new state-of-the-art applications and components that will help their systems increase even more the accuracy and speed of capturing and validating data and according to Dawen, the company is eager to present their newest technological breakthroughs very soon.
New breakthroughs
Last year was quite exciting for Camco as it was setting up a new office in the Middle East to serve clients in the region better with contracts coming from DP World for a total renewal of the gates of its flag-ship terminal in Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates, and a contract for the IPS Dammam Gate Automation project.
But applying an OCR system in the Middle East requires a different approach towards both hardware and software. “Camco developed new dust and heat free components for its systems to guarantee the same reliability and endurance,” said Dauwen. HTS’s Rotenberg agrees that accuracy of the technology is of the highest priority. “Providers are often making guarantees for high OCR read rates in order to win customers’ confidence in the product in which they are investing, ” says Rotenberg.
One of the main stumbling blocks is the integration of the OCR system in to the overall port community system. With an ever increasing demand for various third party systems, a significant challenge for ports is perceived as the integration of those technologies. Although the concept of data messaging is simple – one system tells another system an instruction or update – while the receiving system will send an acknowledgement the message was received and act on it – the programming has to be correct and this is of utmost importance. According to Rotenberg the process of integration for the HTS products has been simplified by using a ‘middleware’ that monitors, processes and records all messaging between sub-systems, integrating with ease to all systems. The system, designed by GCS, also provides robust reporting capabilities for high level statistics as well as detailed transactional reporting for data analysis. Both companies rely on their experience and numerous successful projects in the past. This has not only taught Camco how to design and build its own solutions and systems; it also brought them an extensive knowledge about interfacing with different kinds of TOS packages.
According to Dauwen, choosing for Camco is choosing a vendor that “knows the ropes” about gate process automation in general. All systems, be it truck OCR camera portals, pedestals, train OCR camera portals, crane OCR solutions or the all-connecting Gate Operating System software suite, are designed to increase throughput, handling speed and will lead to a higher return on investment.
Rotenberg points out that often customers are asking for turn-key solutions with varying levels of support requirements based on the level of their own in-house IT services. Solutions are required for streamlining processes, increasing accuracy, reducing cost and managing KPI’s. “Since customers vary in operational business practices, HTS utilises its extensive deployment and integration knowledge base to help new customers take advantage of the systems offered.”
Maybe the following advice from Rotenberg might be worth printing out and pinning on the wall: “When choosing a vendor, price is important, but operators should weigh price against service, performance and proven experience…” She has a point!
Sales in 2011
North America is still an important market for Camco with four new contracts [BNSF Hobbart, BNSF Stockton, Canadian National Chicago and Union Pacific East LA]. The company also consolidated its presence in the Oceania area with a first DP World Australia project in Sydney (5 gate transaction kiosks with an interface with Navis N4).
In Malmo, Sweden, Camco installed an in- and outbound truck OCR camera portal and 4 gate transaction kiosks at CMP, which are managed through their Gate Operating Software (GOS) which is interfacing meticulously with a Tideworks TOS. At the Schwedenkai in Kiel, Germany, an in- and outbound OCR camera portal and 2 gate transaction kiosks were installed, while a similar installation – 1 outbound OCR camera portal interfacing with weighbridge system plus 4 gate transaction kiosks with an interface with Navis Express 2.5 was installed at the DP World Caucedo container terminal in the Dominican Republic.
The Eurogate Container Terminal in Wilhelmshaven, Germany also received a make-over with 1 in and 1 outbound OCR camera portal for trucks, 10 kiosk lanes running under CAMCO’s GOS, interfacing with Navis N4. At the Moerdijk Container Terminal in the Netherlands, a total solution was installed – 1 in and 1 outbound OCR camera for trucks a
nd 8 kiosk lanes.
Rotenberg is careful about revealing their complete activities in 2011, especially as some of their customers do not want to have any publicity on their projects. However, HTS worked closely with Tideworks (a TOS supplier) for a project in Seattle and was awarded a Seegate3 project for both the SSA Terminal T-30 and the BNSF Seattle International Gateway. It also worked in co-operation with Mi-Jack – a supplier of container handling equipment – and replaced a previous OCT vendor system with SeeGate3 at the ITS container terminal in Long Beach, California. Another SeeGate3 project was awarded by SFCT in Miami, Florida and SeeCrane3 was installed on new cranes for the WBCT terminal in Los Angeles.