Institute of Computer Graphics and Vision have
developed a new pedestrian traffic light system in the last three years which is more convenient and meant to replace the push-button system. The innovative camera-based system recognizes the intention of pedestrians to cross the road and switches to green automatically. What's more, it optimizes the traffic flow further, as Horst Possegger from the Institute of Computer Graphics and Vision explains by way of two examples: "The green phase can be extended in the case of large groups of persons, who require more time to cross the road. And if persons leave the waiting area before the lights have turned to green, this is also passed on to the lights. The traffic lights subsequently don't switch to green and there are no unnecessary waiting times for motorized traffic."
Camera tracking as basis
The main feature is a camera mounted on each pedestrian traffic light. Whereas standard industrial solutions only cover a visual field of two by three metres, this system perceives persons within a field of eight by five metres. It recognises whoever wants to cross the street in seconds. "It requires one second to estimate the intention—after two seconds the estimation becomes reliable," explains Possegger. Subsequently, the system signals the wish to cross the road on behalf of one or more persons to the pedestrian light controller. The latter decides when the lights should change—just like a traditional push-button system. "Using the current configurations, our system signals that wish to cross three to four seconds before the button is pushed," says Possegger.
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