RUNNING HEAD: DETECTION OF STOP SIGNS 1

Detection of Stop Signs

Sidney Boakye, Michelle Miller, Joaquin Valda

September 28, 2017

Dr. Ales Psaker

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Abstract

This project describes the design of a device that can detect a stop sign while driving in

urban areas. Having a device that has this capability will help in the automation of vehicles.

Three methods were tested to see the best way to detect a stop sign, these methods include a

HAAR, Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG), and the third is template matching.

All of these methods use video streams to detect and track stop signs as the car moves. These

methods have also been used in the past, to detect faces, color of traffic signs, or the shape of

traffic signs. P. Viola and M. Jones used the HAAR method for face recognition, Jim Torresen

used the template matching for the color of traffic signs and N. Dalal used the HOG to detect the

shape of traffic signs. Going off of this information, the experimenters were able to decide which

method will be more efficient in traffic sign detection. After testing these three methods the

template matching showed the least amount of false positives but HOG proved to be a more

robust method.
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Materials and Methods

The materials in this project consisted of a recording camera, an HAAR program, a HOG,

imaging filters, a Normalized Cross Correlation, and a Stop Sign. These materials would have

many combinations and allow for multiple experimental set-ups.

This project described three main methods undertaken and compared to each other to see

which garnered the best results. These were HAAR, Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG),

and Template matching with HOG. These programs were compared in similar scenarios until it

would be narrowed down into the most effective program. The researchers would first calculate

the parameters for the image size. Then the image would be changed into a gray color image

(64x64) the mock test would run its course. After that the image would be changed into many

different scales, then the camera would calibrated towards the full sized image. After calibration

the camera would be placed in the true experimental environment and would try to detect the

Stop sign location. This was done in three separate sets, then the next method (program) would

be run to compare and collect data.

Fig 1. Template and Equation for Stop sign detection

Analysis
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The main goal of this project was somewhat accomplished, a detection method for stop

signs was developed. There were three different types of detection methods for stop signs, of

which the Histogram of Oriented Gradients proved to be the most reliable.

Table 1. This is the detection results from the template matching method.

Table 2. This is the detection results from the HOG method.

The HAAR algorithm's logic proved to be unsuitable for this application. The template matching

method had high detection rates, but also had false positives bringing down its true detection

rate. The detection rates from the template matching algorithm were plugged in to HOG in order

to determine false positives because it used logistic regression. Because of this HOG proved to

be the most reliable. Regrettably, the experimenters ended up with highly varied and low

detection rates. When accessing error later on, the experimenters realized that there were many

variables that could have lead to the low results they had collected. Of these, the most important

one was that the template matching algorithm was extremely sensitive to lighting leading to false

positives as seen in table 1. To solve this problem the experimenter think that they could use a

different color scale that could account for the different lighting conditions. Ultimately, the
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experimenters did not get the results they were hoping for, but with a better implementation they

believe that this method could produce better results.

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References

Oh Song, H., Bolouki, S., & Yen, A. (2008). Detection of Stop Signs. Retrieved September 27,

2017, from http://ai.stanford.edu/~kosecka/FinalReport_5_T2.pdf