VEHICLE DETECTION THROUGH IMAGE PROCESSING FOR TRAFFIC SURVEILLANCE AND CONTROL

摘要

A vehicle detection system (10) for providing data characteristic of traffic conditions includes a camera (12) overlooking a roadway section (26) for providing video signals representative of the field (traffic scene), and a digitizer (14) for digitizing these signals and providing successive arrays of pixels Iij (picture elements) characteristic of the field at successive points in time. A video monitor (13) coupled to the camera (12) provides a visual image of the field of view. Through use of a terminal (20) and in conjunction with the monitor (13), an operator controls a formatter (16) so as to select a subarray of pixels corresponding to specific sections in the field of view. A microprocessor (18) then processes the intensity values representative of the selected portion of the field of view in accordance with spatial and/or temporal processing methods to generate data characteristic of the presence and passage of vehicles (28). This data can be utilized for real-time traffic surveillance and control, or stored in memory (17) for subsequent processing and evaluation of traffic flow conditions.