Cross-Correlation Tracking Technique for Extracting Speed from Cameras Under Adverse Conditions

Abstract

An algorithm to estimate speed from traffic surveillance cameras in a variety of traffic congestion, weather, and lighting conditions is presented. The features from the images are projected into a one-dimensional sub-space and transformed into a linear coordinate system by using a simplified camera model. A cross-correlation technique is used to summarize the movement of features through a group of images and to estimate mean speed for each lane of vehicles. A Kalman filter technique with a set of maximum-likelihood optimal parameters is used to estimate the traffic speed by lane to create an optimal space-averaged speed.