Motorway surveillance through stereo computer vision

The demand for traffic monitoring systems is growing very quickly. The public transportation authorities have a clear need of these systems to gather as much traffic data as possible so that the proper solutions to congested road and motorways can be adopted. This paper presents a stereo computer vision system for traffic monitoring, developed within the European ESPRIT 8819 VICTORIA project. The system is based on stereo vision technology, which provides clear benefits and advantages with respect to conventional systems based on classical inductive loops or pneumatic tubes. Additionally, and compared to existing monocular vision based sensors, the VICTORIA system has the advantage of providing real world three dimensional information that allow vehicle classification. This is a requirement in some applications such as automatic tolling systems.