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Neural Labs improves road safety and efficiency by embedding its AI vehicle analytics software into Hikvision devices
Neural Labs, one of Spain’s leading providers of advanced computer vision and AI solutions for Smart Cities and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), has embedded its advanced Neural Edge vehicle analytics and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) software into Hikvision’s DeepinView-Series 7-Line cameras. It’s an extremely powerful, yet cost-effective combination which is ideal for various Smart Cities and ITS solutions. Hikvision spoke to Neural Labs’s founder and CEO, Elías Valcárcel, to find out more.
Elías Valcárcel, CEO, Neural Labs.
Q: Could you please tell us about yourself and about your company? How did it get started, and how has it evolved and grown?
A: I started Neural Labs with my colleague, Jesús de la Calle, over 20 years ago here in Barcelona, in Spain. From the very beginning, we’ve always had a very clear mission to use actionable intelligence to make cities and highways safer and more efficient. This obviously means developing technologies but, more than that, it means having a laser-like focus on solutions. Since then, we have established our company as a leader in the fields of Smart Cities and ITS, offering tools that optimize decision-making and improve urban efficiency.
Q: What does your Neural Edge solution do and how does it fit into your overall portfolio?
A: Neural Edge is an embedded in-camera solution that delivers advanced vehicle analytics directly from an intelligent camera—in this case Hikvision’s DeepinView-Series 7-Line cameras—reducing latency, infrastructure complexity, and total cost of ownership. Importantly, Neural Edge is capable of detecting vehicles even when they are cloned or no license plate is present. This is a critical requirement in several regions where plate compliance is inconsistent.
All edge-generated intelligence feeds into our Neural Platform. It is here that strategic value is unlocked as the data is correlated and analyzed to identify patterns which can be used in operational workflows for security and mobility applications.
Q: What makes your ANPR solution stand out from the crowd?
A: One of the hallmarks of the way we solve problems at Neural Labs is that we combine deep neural networks with complementary validation mechanisms and domain-specific optimizations which we have developed over more than two decades. This layered approach is what allows us to deliver such consistent performance in many different and demanding deployments.
Having said that, I believe ANPR accuracy alone is no longer enough. In modern security and ITS environments, customers require full vehicle intelligence: classification, make and model, color recognition, and reliable speed estimation.
More importantly, the real competitive advantage lies in data exploitation. Millions of vehicle transactions are generated daily. Most systems use them only for watchlist checks. Our platform allows customers to extract strategic insights from that data—supporting investigations, planning, and long-term decision-making.
Q: Could you tell us about some of the sectors and applications that use Neural Edge?
A: Our solution is used in Smart Cities, where we support security, enforcement, and mobility departments, and in ITS and highway environments, where we deliver Automatic Incident Detection and advanced tolling-related analytics. In these sectors, the expectations are uncompromising: high accuracy, operational stability, and long-term reliability. These are, after all, mission-critical systems where failure is simply not an option.
Q: How do Hikvision cameras with embedded Neural Edge software work together with other elements of your portfolio?
A: The short answer is completely and seamlessly. With our embedded software, Hikvision’s 7-Line cameras extract vehicle attributes such as license plate numbers, make, model, color, classification, and speed, so they can be used to monitor and manage traffic flows and improve overall decision-making capabilities.
From the operator’s perspective, the system appears as a unified solution. This is essential in large-scale public deployments where it is normal to have solutions composed of lots of different parts. Neural Edge and Hikvision cameras integrate seamlessly into such ecosystems, which maintains consistency in both performance and user experience.
Q: Why did you decide to partner with Hikvision?
A: Generally speaking, I am a strong believer of working with other companies, combining strengths in order to create the best-value solutions for customers. That’s why, from a strategic point of view, partnering with the hardware leadership provided by Hikvision is absolutely essential. Embedding our vehicle analytics expertise directly into Hikvision’s high-performance, widely adopted hardware, is a clear way to create a solution that is both cost-efficient and scalable. Running our AI engines on Hikvision 7-Line cameras does indeed deliver strong performance while simplifying deployment and reducing infrastructure requirements.
Q: How easy was it to integrate Neural Edge with Hikvision 7-Line cameras?
A: Technically, the process was extremely smooth. More importantly, perhaps, is that the collaboration between the people at Hikvision and our team was highly professional and efficient. Not only were the Hikvision support team extremely capable, but they always made themselves available to help, responding rapidly to all our inevitable questions. On several occasions, they worked with us to finely tune the firmware to optimize the integration. This sort of experience reinforced the sense of having a good working partnership rather than the simple vendor integrations which I am more used to.
Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: Thanks to AI, the video analytics industry is entering a phase of exponential growth. I am convinced that the next wave of innovation will not simply improve detection, it will transform how cities and highway authorities operate. Our ambition is to remain at the forefront of that transformation, working alongside strategic partners such as Hikvision.
That’s why we are deepening our integration with Hikvision’s HikCentral platform, which plays a key role in large-scale ecosystem deployments. For us, therefore, this partnership is becoming far more than just a technical integration—it’s now a key element in our strategic plans for future growth.
Find out more
For more details about the integration, please visit our TPP portal.
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