Patent US5690847A successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
EP0454166A2
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Traffic flow measuring method and apparatus
Assignee: Hitachi Ltd
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Filing: 1991-04-26
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2011-04-26
Abstract
Abstract This invention relates to a method an apparatus for measuring traffic flows or in other words, the flows of vehicles, inside and near a crossing, and is directed to provide method and apparatus capable of extracting vehicles with a high level of accuracy. Overlap of vehicles can be avoided by setting the field of a camera (101) not to a range from the inflow portion to the vicinity of center of the crossing but to a range from the center to the vicinity of the outflow portion (151) of the crossing. Accordingly, accuracy of traffic flow measurement can be improved.
Inventors
- 👤 Masao Takatou
- 👤 Hiroshi Takenaga
- 👤 Yasuo Morooka
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-24 19:03
CPC Classifications
G; G08; G08G; G08G1/00; G08G1/065; G08G1/07; G08G1/08; G08G1/01; G08G1/04
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 50
Claim 1
Independent Claim
94 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus comprising: image input means (101a-d) for taking images of scenes near a crossing (50); image processing means (100) for executing various image processings for said images taken in said image input means (101a-d), extracting possible vehicles and providing characteristic quantities of said possible vehicles; and measuring means for determining position data of vehicles based on said characteristic quantities obtained from said image processing means (100), tracking said vehicles by use of said position data and calculating the number of vehicles in at least one direction in which vehicles run.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
31 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image processing means(100) includes means for calculating at least the area and the coordinates of centroid of said possible vehicles.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
90 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said measuring means includes vehicle identification means for identifying vehicles on the basis of a table of moving range data of vehicles for each time zone associated with the state of phase signal of a traffic signal controller (114), a table of points in the moving direction of each vehicle and priority of said moving range, and vehicle moving direction determination means for determining the moving direction of said vehicle on the basis of said points in the moving direction.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
140 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said moving range data table includes a value representing priority of search corresponding to the existing position of a vehicle; said moving direction point table includes a value representing a moving direction point corresponding to a position of passage of said vehicle; said identification means includes means for identifying said vehicle on the basis of said priority of said moving range and on the basis of position coordinates data of said vehicle; said vehicle moving direction determination means includes means for accumulating the moving points of the position of passage of said vehicle, and means for calculating the moving direction points corresponding to the moving distance; and wherein moving direction of said vehicle is determined from the maximum value of the moving direction points obtained from both of said means.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
38 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said measuring means includes means for preparing said moving range data table and said moving direction point table by learning using data at the time of on-line measurement.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
34 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said measuring means includes means for checking any abnormality of said measuring means by use of measurement values of other traffic flow measuring apparatuses.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
37 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said measuring means includes means for calculating the number of vehicles in each vehicle moving direction by use of measurement values of other traffic flow measuring apparatuses.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
52 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said calculation means uses at least the number of inflowing vehicles and the number of outflowing vehicles of each road corresponding to the phase signal of a traffic signal controller (114) as said measurement values of said other traffic flow measuring apparatuses.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
95 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said calculation means uses the values of four time zones, that is, a red time after the passage of a time a from the start of a red signal, a time b after the start of a blue signal, a total tine of the blue time after passage of the time b from the start of the blue signal and a yellow time, and a time a after the start of the red signal, as the numbers of inflowing and outflowing vehicles of each road.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
70 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said measuring means includes means for measuring (m² - 3m + 1) of the number of vehicles in a moving direction at an m-way crossing and means for calculating the remaining (2k - 1) number of vehicles in the moving direction by use of said measurement value and the numbers of inflowing and outflowing vehicles of each of said roads.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
36 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said measuring means includes means for calculating a mean vehicle speed in at least one direction among the mean vehicle speed for the vehicle moving directions.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
34 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image input means (101a-d) and said image processing means (100) are constituted in such a manner as to correspond on an n:1 basis.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
34 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image input means (101a-d) and said image processing means (100) are constituted in such a manner as to correspond on the 1:1 basis.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
37 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image input means (101a-d), said image processing means (100) and said measuring means are constituted in such a manner as to correspond on a 1:1:1 basis.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
64 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said measuring means include vehicle tracking means for storing block coordinates before, at, and after, a new vehicle appears inside the field of a camera for each vehicle, and determining the moving direction of said vehicle by tracking the block coordinates that have been stored already, when said vehicle comes out from said field.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
113 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus comprising: image input means (101a-d) for taking images of scenes near a crossing; image processing means (100) for executing various image processings for said images taken in said image input means (101a-d), extracting possible vehicles and providing characteristic quantities of said possible vehicles; measuring means for determining position data of a vehicle based on said characteristic quantities obtained from said image processing means (100), tracking said vehicles by use of said position data and calculating the number of vehicles in at least one direction in which vehicles run; and control means for controlling a signal on the basis of the result measured by said measuring means.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
33 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said image processing means (100) includes means for calculating at least the area and coordinates of centroid of said possible vehicle.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
93 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said measuring means includes vehicle identification means for identifying vehicles on the basis of a table of moving range data of vehicles for each time zone associated with the state of a phase signal of a traffic signal controller (114), a table of points in the moving direction of each vehicle and priority of said moving range, and vehicle moving direction determination means for determining the moving direction of said vehicle on the basis of said points in the moving direction.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
143 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said moving range data table includes a value representing priority of search corresponding to the existing position of a vehicle; said moving direction point table includes a value representing a moving direction point corresponding to a position of passage of said vehicle; said identification means includes means for identifying said vehicle on the basis of said priority of said moving range and on the basis of position coordinates data of said vehicle; and said vehicle moving direction determination means includes means for accumulating the moving points of the position of passage of said vehicle, means for calculating the moving direction points corresponding to the moving distance and means for determining the moving direction of said vehicle from the maximum value of the moving direction points obtained from both of said means.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
40 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus according to claim 18, wherein said measuring means includes means for preparing said moving range data table and said moving direction point table by learning using data at the time of on-line measurement.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
36 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said measuring means includes means for checking any abnormality of said measuring means by use of measurement values of other traffic flow measuring apparatuses.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
39 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said measuring means includes means for calculating the number of vehicles in each vehicle moving direction by use of measurement values of other traffic flow measuring apparatuses.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
52 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus according to claim 22, wherein said measuring means uses at least the number of inflowing vehicles and the number of outflowing vehicles of each road corresponding to the phase signal of a traffic controller as said measurement values of said other traffic flow measuring apparatuses.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
79 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus according to claim 22, wherein said calculation means uses four values, that is, a red time after the passage of time a from the start of a red signal, a time b after the start of a blue time, the sum of a time after passage of the time b from the start of the blue signal and a yellow time, and the time a after the start of the red signal.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
71 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said measuring means includes means for measuring (m² - 3m + 1) of numbers of vehicles in a moving direction at an m-way crossing and means for calculating the remaining (2k - 1) number of vehicles in the moving direction by use of said measurement value and the numbers of inflowing and outflowing vehicles of each of said roads.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
32 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said measuring means includes means for calculating a mean vehicle speed in at least one direction in which vehicles run.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
36 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said image input means (101a-d) and said image processing means (100) are constituted in such a manner as to correspond on an n:1 basis.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
36 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said image input means (101a-d) and said image processing means (100) are constituted in such a manner as to correspond on a 1:1 basis.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
39 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said image input means (101a-d), said image processing means (100) and said measuring means are constituted in such a manner as to correspond on a 1:1:1 basis.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
42 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said control means makes on-line signal control of a traffic signal on the basis of the result of statistical processing of the measurement result of said traffic flow measuring apparatus.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
52 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling system wherein at least one of the parameters, that is, a cycle, a split and an offset, is corrected on an on-line basis on the basis of the result of statistical processing of the measurement result of said traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
57 words
A traffic flow measuring and controlling system wherein disposition of at least one of a right turn lane, a left turn preferential lane and a right turn-only signal is decided on an off-line basis on the basis of the result of statistical processing of the measurement result of said traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1.
Claim 33
Independent Claim
35 words
A method of measuring traffic flows near a crossing, wherein the field of a camera (101) is set to a range from the center portion of the crossing to the vicinity of its outflow portion.
Claim 34
Independent Claim
30 words
A method of measuring traffic flows near a crossing, wherein the field of a camera (101) is set in such a manner as to cover said crossing as a whole.
Claim 35
Independent Claim
62 words
A method of measuring traffic flows near a crossing, wherein said method uses 2n cameras for an n-way crossing, sets the field of one of the two cameras (101) to a range from the inflow portion to the vicinity of the center and sets the field of one other camera to the vicinity of the center portion opposing said one camera (101).
Claim 36
Dependent Claim
28 words
A traffic flow measuring method according to claim 33, wherein the field of said camera is set in such a manner as not to include a traffic signal.
Claim 37
Independent Claim
60 words
A method of measuring traffic flows near a crossing, wherein the field of a camera (101) is set in such a manner as not to include a traffic signal and a pedestrian crossing and on the back of a vehicle stop line on the inflow side of said crossing inclusive of said vehicle stop line ahead of said pedestrian crossing.
Claim 38
Independent Claim
46 words
A method of measuring traffic flows near a crossing, wherein the field of a camera (101) is set in such a manner as not to include a traffic signal and a pedestrian crossing and ahead of said pedestrian crossing on the outflow side of said crossing.
Claim 39
Independent Claim
46 words
An apparatus for measuring traffic flow near a crossing, wherein image data from a camera (101) whose field is set to a range from the center of said crossing to the vicinity of its outflow portion is used as the input data to said measuring apparatus.
Claim 40
Independent Claim
42 words
An apparatus for measuring traffic flows near a crossing, wherein image data from a camera (101) whose field is set in such a manner as to cover said crossing as a whole is used as the input data to said measuring apparatus.
Claim 41
Independent Claim
80 words
An apparatus for measuring traffic flows near a crossing, wherein said apparatus uses 2n cameras (101) in an n-way crossing, and image data from two cameras (101) field of one of which is set in such a manner as to cover the inflow portion to outflow portion of said crossing and the field of the other of which is set near the center opposing the field of one of them are used as the input data to said measuring apparatus.
Claim 42
Dependent Claim
44 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 39, wherein image data from the camera (101) whose field is set in such a manner as not to cover a traffic signal inside said field are used as the input data to said measuring apparatus.
Claim 43
Independent Claim
71 words
An apparatus for measuring traffic flows near a crossing, wherein image data from a camera (101) whose field is set in such a manner as not to include a traffic signal and a pedestrian crossing but to include a vehicle stop line ahead of said pedestrian crossing, at the back of said stop line on the inflow side of said crossing, are used as the input data to said measuring apparatus.
Claim 44
Independent Claim
57 words
An apparatus for measuring traffic flows near a crossing, wherein image signals from a camera (101) whose field is set in such a manner as not to include a traffic signal and a pedestrian crossing, ahead of said pedestrian crossing on the outflow side of said crossing are used as the input data to said measuring apparatus.
Claim 45
Dependent Claim
83 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said measuring means includes means for performing calculation using equations relative to volumes of traffic per signal cycle at an m-way crossing together with (m² - 3m + 1) independent values representing the numbers of vehicles running in individual directions and any (2m - 1) values representing the numbers of incoming and outgoing vehicles, so as to calculate the remaining (2m - 1) values representing the numbers of vehicles running in individual directions.
Claim 46
Dependent Claim
83 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said measuring means includes means for performing calculation using equations relative to volumes of traffic per signal cycle at an m-way crossing together with (m² - 3m + 1) independent values representing the numbers of vehicles running in individual directions and any (2m - 1) values representing the numbers of incoming and outgoing vehicles, so as to calculate the remaining (2m - 1) values representing the numbers of vehicles running in individual directions.
Claim 47
Dependent Claim
80 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said measuring means includes means for performing calculation using equations relative to volumes of traffic per signal phase cycle at a 4-way crossing together with two independent values representing the numbers of left-turning and right-turning vehicles, necessary values representing the numbers of incoming and outgoing vehicles per each signal phase of individual roads, so as to calculate the remaining 6 values representing the numbers of vehicles running in individual directions.
Claim 48
Dependent Claim
80 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said measuring means includes means for performing calculation using equations relative to volumes of traffic per signal phase cycle at a 4-way crossing together with two independent values representing the numbers of left-turning and right-turning vehicles, necessary values representing the numbers of incoming and outgoing vehicles per each signal phase of individual roads, so as to calculate the remaining 6 values representing the numbers of vehicles running in individual directions.
Claim 49
Dependent Claim
54 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said equations relative to volumes of traffic per signal phase cycle at an m-way crossing take account of both the switching timing of the phase signal of a traffic signal and the delay time due to different positions of measurement for the same vehicle.
Claim 50
Dependent Claim
54 words
A traffic flow measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said equations relative to volumes of traffic per signal phase cycle at an m-way crossing take account of both the switching timing of the phase signal of a traffic signal and the delay time due to different positions of measurement for the same vehicle.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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