Traffic sensor
First Claim
1. Apparatus for detecting at least one vehicle, comprising:
- at least one camera that provides a first video frame that is representative of a field of view of said camera; and
a computation unit operative to;
(1) organize the first video frame and a second video frame also representative of the field of view of the camera into respective pluralities of tiles, each tile being a set of adjacent pixels having predetermined dimensions smaller than a representation of the vehicle in the first video frame, said second video frame being a reference frame representing a combination of previous frames from said camera and being updated by combining selected new frames with said combination of previous frames, said combination of previous frames being weighted more heavily than each said new frame during said update of said second video frame, (2) compare each of a plurality of tiles of the first video frame with a corresponding tile from the second video frame to detect a difference of predetermined magnitude and type, wherein for each tile, if the difference of predetermined magnitude and type is detected, then the tile is in a first state, and if the difference of said predetermined magnitude and type is not detected, then the tile is in a second state, and (3) determine whether a plurality of proximate tiles are in said first state, such a determination indicating that the vehicle is present in the field of view of said camera at a current position represented by said plurality of proximate tiles.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A traffic sensor system for detecting and tracking vehicles is describede. A video camera is employed to obtain a video image of a section of a roadway. Motion is detected through changes in luminance and edges in frames of the video image. Predetermined sets of pixels (“tiles”) in the frames are designated to be in either an “active” state or an “inactive” state. A tile becomes active when the luminance or edge values of the pixels of the tile differ from the respective luminance or edge values of a corresponding tile in a reference frame in accordance with predetermined criteria. The tile becomes inactive when the luminance or edge values of the pixels of the tile do not differ from the corresponding reference frame tile in accordance with the is predetermined criteria. Shape and motion of groups of active tiles (“quanta”) are analyzed with software and a neural network to detect and track vehicles.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. Apparatus for detecting at least one vehicle, comprising:
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at least one camera that provides a first video frame that is representative of a field of view of said camera; and
a computation unit operative to;
(1) organize the first video frame and a second video frame also representative of the field of view of the camera into respective pluralities of tiles, each tile being a set of adjacent pixels having predetermined dimensions smaller than a representation of the vehicle in the first video frame, said second video frame being a reference frame representing a combination of previous frames from said camera and being updated by combining selected new frames with said combination of previous frames, said combination of previous frames being weighted more heavily than each said new frame during said update of said second video frame, (2) compare each of a plurality of tiles of the first video frame with a corresponding tile from the second video frame to detect a difference of predetermined magnitude and type,wherein for each tile, if the difference of predetermined magnitude and type is detected, then the tile is in a first state, and if the difference of said predetermined magnitude and type is not detected, then the tile is in a second state, and (3) determine whether a plurality of proximate tiles are in said first state, such a determination indicating that the vehicle is present in the field of view of said camera at a current position represented by said plurality of proximate tiles. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification