System for determining kind of vehicle and method therefor

• US 20030189500A1
• Filed: 03/20/2003
• Published: 10/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jin Tay Industries Co.
• Original Assignee: LG Industrial Systems Co., Ltd (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Lim, Dae-Woon
• Granted Patent: US 6,897,789 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/937
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors

Abstract

A system for determining a kind of vehicle and a method therefore, including a vehicle detection unit for detecting a vehicle which reaches to a vehicle detection region on a roadway, a wheel shaft number counting unit for counting a number of wheel shafts of the detected vehicle, an image photographing unit for photographing a front or rear image of the detected vehicle and a vehicle kind determination unit for yielding distances and widths of the tires of the detected vehicle on the basis of the photographed image from the image photographing unit and determining the kind of the vehicle on the basis of the number of wheel shafts detected from the wheel shaft counting unit and the yielded distance and width values can precisely determine the kind of vehicle traveling the roadway.

Claims

1. A system for determining a kind of vehicle, comprising:

a vehicle detection unit for detecting a vehicle which reaches to a vehicle detection region on a roadway;

a wheel shaft number counting unit for counting a number of wheel shafts of the detected vehicle;

an image photographing unit for photographing a front or rear image of the detected vehicle; and

a vehicle kind determination unit for yielding distances and widths of the tires of the detected vehicle on the basis of the photographed image from the image photographing unit and determining the kind of the vehicle on the basis of the number of wheel shafts detected from the wheel shaft counting unit and the yielded distance and width values.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an image acquisition device for operating the image photographing unit when a vehicle reaching to the vehicle detection region is detected and outputting the image photographed from the image photographing unit.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle detection unit is composed of optical sensors or laser sensors.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the wheel shaft counting unit is composed of laser sensors and the unit counts a number of wheel shafts of a vehicle passing the vehicle detection region of the vehicle detection unit.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle kind determination unit includes:

a vehicle borderline detection unit for detecting a borderline of the vehicle from the front or a rear image of the vehicle photographed by the image photographing unit;

an image binarizing unit for binarizing an image of the detected borderline;

a tire region detection unit for detecting a tire region of the vehicle on the basis of the binary-coded image;

a tire distance/width determination unit for yielding a distance and a width of the tires from the detected tire region; and

a vehicle kind determination unit for determining a kind of the vehicle by comparing the yielded distance and width and the number of the counted wheel shafts with a stored vehicle kind classification table which is pre-stored.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the tire distance/width determination unit yields a distance between inner and outer sides of the both side tires of the vehicle and a width of the both side tires.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle kind determination unit includes:

a communication port for receiving a value of number of wheel shafts counted from the wheel shafts counting unit;

an image acquisition device for operating the image photographing unit when a vehicle which reaches to the vehicle detection region is detected by the vehicle detection unit and outputting a front or rear image of the vehicle photographed in the image photographing unit;

a memory device for storing front or rear image of the vehicle outputted from the image acquisition device;

a central processing unit for yielding a distance and width of the tires of the detected vehicle on the basis of the front or rear image of the vehicle stored in the memory device and determining a kind of vehicle which reaches to the vehicle detection region by comparing the number of the counted wheel shafts received from the wheel shafts counting unit through the communication port and the yielded distance and width with a pre-stored vehicle kind classification table.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the image acquisition device includes:

a trigger board for operating the image photographing unit when the vehicle which reaches to the vehicle detection region is detected by the vehicle detection unit; and

a frame grabber for storing an image photographed in the image photographing unit in the memory device.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the central processing unit includes:

a vehicle borderline detection unit for detecting a borderline of the vehicle from the front or a rear image of the vehicle stored in the memory unit;

an image binarizing unit for binarizing a borderline image detected from the vehicle borderline detection unit;

a tire region detection unit for detecting a tire region of the vehicle on the basis of the image binary-coded from the image binarizing unit;

a tire region detection unit for detecting a tire region of the vehicle on the basis of the binary-coded image in the image binarizing unit;

a tire distance/width determination unit for yielding inner and outer distances of both side tires of the vehicle on the basis of the tire region detected from the tire region detection unit and yielding the widths of the both side tires;

a communication unit for receiving the number of wheel shafts counted in the wheel shaft counting unit; and

a vehicle kind classifying determination unit for determining a kind of the vehicle which reaches to the vehicle detection region by comparing the distance and width values outputted from the tire distance/width determination unit and the number of the wheel shafts received through the communication unit with a vehicle kind classification table pre-stored in a storage unit.

10. A method for determining a kind of vehicle, comprising the steps of:

counting a number of vehicles which travel on a roadway with an optical sensor;

yielding the distance and width of tires of the vehicle on the basis of the photographed image; and

determining the kind of vehicle by comparing the counted number of wheel shafts and the yielded distance and width values with a vehicle kind classification table.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of yielding the distance and width includes the steps of:

detecting a borderline image of the vehicle from the photographed image;

binarizing the borderline image;

detecting a tire region of the vehicle on the basis of the binary-coded image; and

yielding the distance and width of the tires on the basis of the detected tire region.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein a distance between an inner side and an outer side of the both side tires of the vehicle and a width of the both side tires are yielded from the detected tire region in the step of yielding the distance and width of the tires.