The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences
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Citation
Articles | Volume XXXVIII-3/W22
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprsarchives-XXXVIII-3-W22-209-2011
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprsarchives-XXXVIII-3-W22-209-2011
26 Apr 2013
 | 26 Apr 2013

VEHICLE DETECTION FROM AN IMAGE SEQUENCE COLLECTED BY A HOVERING HELICOPTER

F. K. Nejadasl and R. C. Lindenbergh

Keywords: Foreground and background identification, vehicle detection, temporal profile, sequential method, maximum frequency

Abstract. This paper addresses the problem of vehicle detection from an image sequence in difficult cases. Difficulties are notably caused by relatively small vehicles, vehicles that appear with low contrast or vehicles that drive at low speed. The image sequence considered here is recorded by a hovering helicopter and was stabilized prior to the vehicle detection step considered here. A practical algorithm is designed and implemented for this purpose of vehicle detection. Each pixel is identified firstly as either a background (road) or a foreground (vehicle) pixel by analyzing its gray-level temporal profile in a sequential way. Secondly, a vehicle is identified as a cluster of foreground pixels. The results of this new method are demonstrated on a test image-sequence featuring very congested traffic but also smoothly flowing traffic. It is shown that for both traffic situations the method is able to successfully detect low contrast, small size and low speed vehicles.