When designing something like the NEC column, an outdoor installation where a face recognition camera can be used, removing as many potential problems or obstacles as possible while still in the designing stage is crucial before even getting to the prototyping stage for testing.

Direct sunlight hitting the camera lens will render the face recognition feature useless, which will cause a traffic jam in and out of the estate. The unit is most at risk of sunlight glare at sunrise as well as sunset, which happens to be high peak times for traffic as residents leave or return home. The system won’t work even with overhead cover at the entrance if the column is facing a certain direction and sunlight is coming in from a low angle.

Naturally a sunshield on the column is needed, but this alone won’t be enough to block out sunlight coming in from a low angle. Theoretically, having the facial terminal embedded inside the column at a certain depth without obscuring its view to the outside world, combined with that of a small sunshield on the outside, should be enough to keep the camera lens free from glare.

To test this while still in the design phase, I collected information from a website that gives solar data for a selected area, including the degree of angles during sunrise and sunset. From there, I used Inventor Studio, where I created a light source aimed directly at the model I made of the face recognition terminal’s camera lens, then I positioned the light source at those different angles should the column be facing north.

The model showed that the Face Recognition Terminal’s screen would be hit by sunlight, however, the camera lens itself would remain in the shade throughout the entire day.