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US5448484A Expired / Lapsed US ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Neural network-based vehicle detection system and method

Assignee: Individual
•
Filing: 1992-11-03
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Granted: 1995-09-05
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Expires: 2012-11-03
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Abstract

Abstract The present invention is directed to a neural network-based system for detecting the presence of a vehicle within a traffic scene. The vehicle detection system comprises an apparatus for producing an image signal representative of an image of the traffic scene and a trainable neural network for identifying the presence of a vehicle within the traffic scene. The present invention is also directed to a method for detecting the presence of a vehicle within a traffic scene. The vehicle detection method includes the steps of producing an image signal representative of an image of the traffic scene, collecting a training set of these image signals, training a neural network from this training set of image signals to correctly identify the presence of a vehicle within the traffic scene and performing surveillance of the traffic scene with the trained neural network to detect the presence of a vehicle.

Inventors

  • 👤 Darcy M. Bullock
  • 👤 James H. Garrett, Jr.
  • 👤 Chris T. Hendrickson

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction US
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-11-05 04:04
CPC Classifications
G; G08; G08G; G08G1/00; G08G1/01; G08G1/04; G06; G06F; G06F18/00; G06F18/20; G06F18/24; G06F18/241; G06F18/2413; G06F18/24133; G06F18/24143; G06T; G06T7/00; G06T7/70; G06V; G06V10/00; G06V10/40; G06V10/44; G06V10/443; G06V10/449; G06V10/451; G06V10/454; G06V10/70; G06V10/82; G06V20/00; G06V20/50; G06V20/52; G06V20/54; G06T2207/00; G06T2207/10; G06T2207/10016; G06T2207/20; G06T2207/20084; G06T2207/20092; G06T2207/20104; G06T2207/30; G06T2207/30236

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 13
Claim 1
Independent Claim 322 words
A system for detecting the presence of a vehicle within a traffic scene, said vehicle detection system comprising: means for producing an image signal representative of an image of the traffic scene that includes a video camera for producing an analog video signal representative of a video image of the traffic scene; and means for processing said image signal to identify the presence of the vehicle within the traffic scene wherein said means for processing includes: means for producing a digitized image signal from said analog video signal; means for specifying a detection zone within said video image and means for extracting a portion of said digitized image signal corresponding to said detection zone to produce a digitized detection zone signal; means for producing a tiled detection zone pixel map from said digitized detection zone signal; a trainable neural network comprising input processing units, hidden processing units and output processing units wherein an output from each of said input processing units is connected to an input of each of said hidden processing units and an output from each of said hidden processing units is connected to an input of each of said output processing units and wherein said trainable neural network produces an output signal at each of said output processing units representative of the presence of the vehicle within a portion of said detection zone and wherein an ordered vector of said output signals produces a Gaussian-shaped curve; means for inputting said tiled detection zone pixel map into said trainable neural network; and an output filter for producing a presence output signal indicating that the vehicle is within said detection zone, said output filter including means for producing a pulse output signal indicating that the vehicle has passed through said detection zone by performing a matched filter operation on a time series of said ordered vectors of said output signals to detect when the vehicle has passed through said detection zone.
Claim 2
Independent Claim 322 words
A system for detecting the presence of a vehicle within a traffic scene, said vehicle detection system comprising: means for producing an image signal representative of an image of the traffic scene that includes a video camera for producing an analog video signal representative of a video image of the traffic scene; and means for processing said image signal to identify the presence of the vehicle within the traffic scene wherein said means for processing includes: means for producing a digitized image signal from said analog video signal; means for specifying a detection zone within said video image and means for extracting a portion of said digitized image signal corresponding to said detection zone to produce a digitized detection zone signal; means for producing a tiled detection zone pixel map from said digitized detection zone signal; a trainable neural network comprising input processing units, hidden processing units and output processing units wherein an output from each of said input processing units is connected to an input of each of said hidden processing units and an output from each of said hidden processing units is connected to an input of each of said output processing units and wherein said trainable neural network produces an output signal at each of said output processing units representative of the presence of the vehicle within a portion of said detection zone and wherein an ordered vector of said output signals produces a Gaussian-shaped curve; means for inputting said tiled detection zone pixel map into said trainable neural network; and an output filter for producing a presence output signal indicating that the vehicle is within said detection zone, said output filter including means for producing a pulse output signal indicating that the vehicle has passed through said detection zone by performing a matched filter operation on a time series of said ordered vectors of said output signals to detect when the vehicle has passed through said detection zone.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 156 words
The vehicle detection system of claim 1 wherein said trainable neural network is comprised of a single layer of input processing units, more than one layer of hidden processing units and a single layer of output processing units and wherein an output from each of said input processing units is connected to an input of each of said hidden processing units in a first layer of said hidden processing units, an output from each of said hidden processing units in a last layer of said hidden processing units is connected to an input of each of said output processing units, and multiple layers of said hidden processing units are interconnected such that said output from each of said hidden processing units in any one but said last of said layers of said hidden processing units is connected to said input of each of said hidden processing units in a next layer of said hidden processing units.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 29 words
The vehicle detection system of claim 1 wherein said output filter includes means for producing a presence output signal when one of said output signals exceeds a threshold value.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 19 words
The vehicle detection system of claim 3 wherein said threshold value is in the range from 0.6 to 0.8.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 26 words
The vehicle detection system of claim 1 wherein said trainable neural network is implemented in computer software as a neural network simulator running on a computer.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 17 words
The vehicle detection system of claim 1 wherein said trainable neural network is implemented in computer hardware.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim 74 words
The vehicle detection system of claim 1 wherein a numerical connection weight is assigned to (i) each of said connections between each of said outputs of each of said input processing units and each of said inputs of each of said hidden processing units and (ii) each of said connections between each of said outputs of each of said hidden processing units and each of said inputs of each of said output processing units.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim 27 words
The vehicle detection system of claim 7 wherein a numerical bias is assigned to each of said hidden processing units and each of said output processing units.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim 33 words
The vehicle detection system of claim 8 wherein the value of each of said numerical connection weights and each of said numerical biases is determined through a closed-loop training procedure utilizing backpropagation techniques.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim 17 words
The vehicle detection system of claim 9 wherein said closed-loop training procedure is the Generalized Delta Rule.
Claim 12
Independent Claim 280 words
A method for detecting the presence of a vehicle within a traffic scene, comprising the steps of: producing an image signal representative of an image of the traffic scene and an analog video signal representative of a video image of the traffic scene; processing said image signal to identify the presence of the vehicle within the traffic scene; producing a digitized image signal from said analog video signal; specifying a detection zone within said video image and extracting a portion of said digitized image signal corresponding to said detection zone to produce a digitized detection zone signal; producing a tiled detection zone pixel map from said digitized detection zone signal; inputting said tiled detection zone pixel map into a trainable neural network comprising input processing units, hidden processing units and output processing units wherein an output from each of said input processing units is connected to an input of each of said hidden processing units and an output from each of said hidden processing units is connected to an input of each of said output processing units and wherein said trainable neural network produces an output signal at each of said output processing units representative of the presence of the vehicle within a portion of said detection zone and wherein an ordered vector of said output signals produces a Gaussian-shaped curve; producing a presence output signal indicating that the vehicle is within said detection zone; and producing a pulse output signal indicating that the vehicle has passed through said detection zone by performing a matched filter operation on a time series of said ordered vectors of said output signals to detect when the vehicle has passed through said detection zone.
Claim 13
Independent Claim 280 words
A method for detecting the presence of a vehicle within a traffic scene, comprising the steps of: producing an image signal representative of an image of the traffic scene and an analog video signal representative of a video image of the traffic scene; processing said image signal to identify the presence of the vehicle within the traffic scene; producing a digitized image signal from said analog video signal; specifying a detection zone within said video image and extracting a portion of said digitized image signal corresponding to said detection zone to produce a digitized detection zone signal; producing a tiled detection zone pixel map from said digitized detection zone signal; inputting said tiled detection zone pixel map into a trainable neural network comprising input processing units, hidden processing units and output processing units wherein an output from each of said input processing units is connected to an input of each of said hidden processing units and an output from each of said hidden processing units is connected to an input of each of said output processing units and wherein said trainable neural network produces an output signal at each of said output processing units representative of the presence of the vehicle within a portion of said detection zone and wherein an ordered vector of said output signals produces a Gaussian-shaped curve; producing a presence output signal indicating that the vehicle is within said detection zone; and producing a pulse output signal indicating that the vehicle has passed through said detection zone by performing a matched filter operation on a time series of said ordered vectors of said output signals to detect when the vehicle has passed through said detection zone.

USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows

Annuity Stage Window Opens Payment Deadline Surcharge Period Until Estimated Fee Status
3.5 Years (Year 4) 1998-09-04 1999-03-06 1999-09-05 $2000.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8) 2002-09-04 2003-03-06 2003-09-05 $3760.00 Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12) 2006-09-04 2007-03-06 2007-09-05 $7700.00 Window Closed / Lapsed

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