Video traffic analysis using scene and vehicle models

This paper presents a complete system for analyzing a vehicle?s behavior in the context of real-time traffic video surveillance applications. To obtain the best possible results, it is fundamental to exploit the scene characteristics and the predefined traffic rules. For that purpose, an initial training step is performed that involves estimating the geometrical structure of the road, i.e., the depth relative to the camera, the vanishing points, the road areas itself, the road decomposition (into normal and forbidden traffic lanes or areas), the traffic rules, the typical vehicle trajectories and speeds, and the lane-changing rules. This process leads to a scene model, which is used together with a simple vehicle geometrical model during the vehicle detection, tracking and trajectory estimation phases to improve the robustness against the perspective and occlusion effects. Shadow effects are also accounted for during the moving object detection phase. Finally, this spatio-temporal analysis is used to obtain information that concerns the vehicles? behaviors. Experiments show that the information obtained is reliable and can be computed in real time.