Development of an Automatic Traffic Conflict Detection System Based on Image Tracking Technology

Increasing reliance on surveillance has emphasized the need for better vehicle detection, such as with wide-area detectors. Traffic information from vehicle trajectories can be especially useful because it measures spatial information rather than single-point information. Additional information from vehicle trajectories could lead to improved incident detection, both by identifying stopped vehicles within the camera's field of view and by tracking detailed vehicle movement trajectories. In this research, a vehicle image processing system was developed by using a vehicle tracking algorithm, and a traffic conflict technology was applied to the tracking system. To overcome the limitations of the existing traffic conflict technology, this study developed a traffic conflict technology that considers the severity of different types of conflict. To apply this method, video images were collected from intersections at Jungja and Naejung in Sungnam City, South Korea. The image processing approach adopted in this research was based on the use of a single camera installed at the corner of a street to detect vehicles approaching an intersection from all directions, and they were analyzed with the traffic information extracted from the image tracking system. To verify the tracking system, three categories were tested: traffic volume and speed accuracy, vehicle trajectory tracking, and traffic conflict.