An image detection technique based on morphological edge detection and background differencing for real-time traffic analysis

The real-time vehicle detection from a traffic scene is the major process in image processing based traffic data collection and analysis techniques. The most common algorithm used for real-time vehicle detection is based on background differencing and thresholding operations. The efficiency of this method of image detection is heavily dependent on the background updating and threshold selection techniques. In this paper, a new background updating and a dynamic threshold selection technique is presented. An alternative image detection technique used in image processing is based on edge detection techniques. However, an edge detector extracts the edges of the objects of a scene irrespective of whether it belongs to the background details or the objects. Therefore, to separate these two, extra information is required. We have developed a new image detection method based on background differencing and edge detection techniques, which separates the objects from their backgrounds and works well under various lighting and weather conditions. This image detection technique together with other techniques for calculating traffic parameters e.g. counting number of vehicles, works in real-time on an 80386-based microcomputer operating at a clock speed of 33 MHz.