• The Transactions of the Korea Information Processing Society
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• v.7 no.9
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• pp.3037-3047
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• 2000

This paper describes a method of tracking a close leading vehicle by color image processing using the pairs of tail and brake lights. which emit red light and are housed on the rear of the vehicle in stop-and-go traffic condition. In the color image converted as an HSV color model. candidate regions of rear lights are identified using the color features of a pair of lights. Then. the pair of tailor brake lights are detected by means of the geometrical features and location features for the pattern of the tail and brake lights. The location of the leading vehicle can be estimated by the location of the detected lights and the vehicle can be tracked continuously. It is also possible to detect the braking status of the leading vehicle by measuring the change in HSV color components of the pair of lights detected. In the experiment. this method tracked a leading vehicle successfully from urban road images and was more useful at night than in the daylight. The KAV-Ill (Korea Autonomous Vehicle- Ill) equipped with a color vision system implementing this algorithm was able to follow a leading vehicle autonomously at speeds of up to 15km!h on a paved road at night. This method might be useful for developing an LSA (Low Speed Automation) system that can relieve driver's stress in the stop-and-go traffic conditions encountered on urban roads.