Intelligent Night Vision System: Nighttime Pedestrian Detection Assistance System

In Japan, nighttime pedestrian fatal accidents account for roughly 20% of all fatal traffic accidents, and it is believed that the majority of the incidents occur due to a delay in the detection of pedestrians being in front vehicles by the drivers involved. In this project, Intelligent Night Vision System (Nighttime Pedestrian Detection Assistance System) has been developed, which is expected to reduce these types of accidents. The system displays, on a head-up display (HUD) located in front of the driver, an image from the system’s far-infrared camera that can make images of what is ahead, in front of the vehicle, even when there is absolutely no light. At the same time, the system detects pedestrians crossing the road up ahead, and pedestrians walking alongside the road, through image processing of the far-infrared stereo camera images, and notifies the driver of these preferences with a sound alarm and high-lighted framing of the pedestrian locations within the image.