How Sesam-e works in general may be described in following process steps

As a vehicle approaches the gate or barrier, Sesam-e detects its presence. This technique is called triggering. Sesam-e uses several triggering methods ranging from detection loops to software based trigger. Software trigger is an intelligent video analytics component enabling detection of vehicle presence.

Once Sesam-e receives information about vehicle presence at the gate, it acquires the image of the vehicle from assigned IP camera.

The image of the vehicle is then send to license plate reading component (ANPR engine). Sesam-e uses world best known ANPR engine to achieve high accuracy. The ANPR reads the image, extracts the license plate, reads its text and supplementary information about the plate, as country, plate special areas colours and much more. Recognised plate information is forwarded to Sesam-e for further processing.

Sesam-e receives back bunch of information from ANPR. The information is processed in accordance with predefined scenarios. The plate number and country is then compared with registration database. If a match with certain permission scenario is found, Sesam-e process the scenarios.

Action scenarios are based on the configuration that suits each particular usage of Sesam-e. A signal to gate for opening may be sent automatically, or special status information may be presented to the Sesam-e user interface.

All actions taken by Sesam-e automatically, or the actions performed by system users are stored with the timestamp. So all actions may be tracked back in case it's needed for further analysis or for displaying statistics.

As Sesam-e is primarily designed to interact with users, some scenarios need user actions or attention. For this, the output of Sesam-e processing is presented to the users. Sesam-e presents live image of captured vehicle, information about registration status and results of recognition of the license plate. User may then perform manual actions, where required.

Live view is a screen that is intended for users that act as gate operators. Gate operator monitors presence of vehicle at the gate, inputs additional information, verifies the information provided by Sesam-e and alternatively opens the gate manually, using the screen buttons. Operator may also manually trigger image acquisition if needed.

Archive screen shows information about all vehicles passed the gates in table-like manner. Each row of the table represents one passage. In the archive all relevant information as date, time, license plate number, country and colour of the plate, registration data, and action that was executed by system or operator are shown. Presented data can be exported to Excel for further processing or analysing. There are filtering and full text search capabilities in the archive screen, enabling fast access to the information of interest.

Vehicles that are registered within the system are becoming known to the system. It means driver name, company, telephone number and other information may be stored for each vehicle along with the permissions. If the permission is set to allow, the system allows the vehicle with the registered license plate to enter automatically in predefined dates and times. User may allow vehicle to enter any time, or may specify date, weekday and time ranges when the vehicle may enter. Therefore a temporary entrance permission may be granted, which user may find useful in specific cases.

User management and system configuration are one of other features of the system. As these functions are intended for installation technicians, full details can be found in administration manual.

Sesam-e uses discretely IP cameras. It is essential to use cameras with proper lens, global shutter and sufficient dynamic range. There is a list of supported cameras, tested to comply with Sesam-e requirements, in our knowledge repository.

Sesam-e may work during day or night. For night operations, additional lighting must be used. The lighting may be white light or infrared light. White light enables to work in colour mode even during night, but using white light may be restricted for usage especially in cases where the light may dazzle or blind drivers. Infrared is therefore more suitable way, as infrared light is invisible by eye. From the other hand, in infrared mode, the camera can see only in black and white.

Triggering is a general name for techniques of detecting vehicle presence and acquiring corresponding image from the camera. For detecting the vehicle, induction loop, laser trigger or infrared barrier are commonly used. Sesam-e extends detection techniques by using video detections, that analyse video stream from the camera and thus no HW installation is necessary.

Sesam-e does not control the gate, barrier or pike directly, but uses IP based controller or other I/O and dry contact devices. In some cases, camera I/O connector may be used for sending opening information to the gate native controller.