Vehicle detection through image processing for traffic surveillance and control
First Claim
1. A vehicle detection system including:
- sensor means for sensing traffic in a field of view and for providing successive arrays of pixels characteristic of the field of view;
a formatter coupled to the sensor means and including an input terminal for receiving subarray selection information representative of changeable selected portions of the field of view and means for selecting subarrays of pixels characteristic of the selected portions of the field of view from the arrays provided by the sensor means;
as a function of the subarray selection information andprocessor means for processing the selected subarrays of pixels and for providing data representing presence and/or passage of vehicles within the selected portions of the field view.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A vehicle detection system for providing data characteristic of traffic conditions includes a camera overlooking a roadway section for providing video signals representative of the field (traffic scene), and a digitizer for digitizing these signals and providing successive arrays of pixels (picture elements) characteristic of the field at successive points in space and time. A video monitor coupled to the camera provides a visual image of the field of view. Through use of a terminal and in conjunction with the monitor, an operator controls a formatter so as to select a subarray of pixels corresponding to specific sections in the field of view. A microprocessor 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. This data can be utilized for real-time traffic surveillance and control, or stored in memory for subsequent processing and evaluation of traffic flow conditions.
464 Citations
33 Claims
-
1. A vehicle detection system including:
-
sensor means for sensing traffic in a field of view and for providing successive arrays of pixels characteristic of the field of view; a formatter coupled to the sensor means and including an input terminal for receiving subarray selection information representative of changeable selected portions of the field of view and means for selecting subarrays of pixels characteristic of the selected portions of the field of view from the arrays provided by the sensor means;
as a function of the subarray selection information andprocessor means for processing the selected subarrays of pixels and for providing data representing presence and/or passage of vehicles within the selected portions of the field view. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A system of the type including imaging means for providing successive pixel arrays characteristic of a field of view including traffic, over time, and processor means for processing the pixels to produce data representative of presence and/or passage of vehicles within the field of view;
- which system includes a formatter coupled between the imaging means and the processor means, and including an input terminal for receiving subarray selection information data representative of changeable selected portions of the field of view and means for selecting subarrays of pixels characteristic of the selected portions of the field of view as a function of the subarray selection information for processing by the processor means.
- View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
-
13. A method for operating programmable computing means to spatially process arrays of pixels representative of a field of view of traffic over time so as to generate data characteristic of presence of vehicles within the field of view, including:
-
receiving successive sensed arrays of pixels representative of a field of view of traffic over time; time averaging corresponding pixels of successive sensed arrays over time to provide a time averaged array; summing corresponding pixels of the time averaged array with pixels of a sensed array to generate a background adjusted array; spatially averaging window groups of pixels of the background adjusted array to generate a spatially averaged array; generating a spatial variance array of pixels as a function of corresponding pixels from the background adjusted array and pixels from the spatially averaged array; and generating data representative of vehicle presence as a function of pixels of the spatial variance array. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
-
-
22. A method for operating programmable computing means to temporally process arrays of pixels representative of a field of view of traffic over time so as to produce data characteristic of vehicle presence, including:
-
receiving successive sensed arrays of pixels representative of a field of view of traffic over time; time averaging corresponding pixels of successive sensed arrays to produce a time averaged array; summing corresponding pixels of the time averaged array and pixels of a sensed array to produce a background adjusted array; generating a time variance array of time variance pixels as a function of corresponding pixels from a predetermined number of successive background adjusted arrays; and generating data representative of vehicle presence as a function of corresponding time variance pixels from the time variance array and background adjusted pixels from the background adjusted array. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26)
-
-
27. A method for operating programmable computing means to process successive sensed arrays of pixels representative of a field of view of traffic over time to generate data representative of presence of vehicles within the field of view, including:
-
independently spatially processing the arrays of pixels and generating spatially processed presence data representative of the presence of vehicles within the field of view; temporally processing the arrays of pixels independent from the spatial processing step and generating temporally processed presence data representative of the presence of vehicles within the field of view; and generating output data representative of presence of vehicles within the field of view as a function of the spatially processed presence data and the temporally processed presence data. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
-
-
30. A vehicle detection system, including:
-
means for sensing traffic in a field of view and for providing successive arrays of pixels representative of the field of view; means for controlling the selection of subarrays of pixels characteristic of changeable selected portions of the field of view from the arrays provided by the sensor means as a function of traffic within the field of view; and means for processing the selected subarrays of pixels and for providing data representative of presence and/or passage of vehicles within the selected portions of the field of view. - View Dependent Claims (31)
-
-
32. A method for determining information representative of the presence and/or passage of vehicles within a field of view, including:
-
sensing a field of view of traffic and generating arrays of pixels characteristic of the field of view; controlling the selection of subarrays of pixels characteristic of changeable selected portions of the field of view from the generated arrays; and processing the selected subarrays of pixels and generating data representative of the presence and/or passage of vehicles within the selected portions of the field of view. - View Dependent Claims (33)
-
Specification