A2-1
ACCIDENT VEHICLE AUTOMATIC DETECTION SYSTEM
BY IMAGE PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY
A.’ISuge’’ and H.Takigawa” and H.Osuga” and H.Soma’’ and K.Morisaki’’
1)Hanshin Expressway Public Corporation
1-3,4-chome.Kyutaro-machi
OsakaJapan
Abstract: T h e Hanshin Expressway Public
Corporation was established in 1962 to improve the
traffic congestion in Osaka and Kobe area.
At present, The Hanshin Expressway provides 13
routes, 157.9Km in total road length, and it’s average
traffic volume per day is about 830,000 motor-vehicles.
With expansion of the expressway, an increase in
traffic congestion has naturally accompanied with the
increase of traffc volume. In 1992, there WBS 14,836
traffic jams and 7,410 accidents.
The traffic controle system WBS adopted on the
Hanshin expressway in 1969 to maintain a smooth
traffic flow and to ensure safety, comfortable and
efficient transportation. Since then, the sysytem has
developed and expanded.
Up to this time, as the Acknowledgement of these
situations has been done by emergency calls, lTV
cameras and patrol cars, according to our research$
takes about 8 minutes to acknowdge the accidents and
about 22 minutes before an urgent car comes to at the
spot where the accident occurs.
Therefore, if you can detect accidents or stopped
vehicles immediately, you can quickly alarm to the
following cars and urgent cars, thereby preventing
secondary accidents,responding to accidents quickly,
and reducing jammed time.
0-7803-21l)5-7/!M/$4 00 C 1994 IEEE
1994 Vehide Navigation & information Systems Conference Proceedings
2)Matsushita Communication Jndusmial Co&d
3-19-5,Shin-Y0k0hama,K0h0k~-k~
YokohamaJapan
We have installed four television cameras at a
curved area on a expressway where motor vehicle
accidents frequently occur, to experiment and verify
whether accidents can be detected by processing
images taken by these cameras.
As a result, we have found an effective method
for detecting accidents or stopped vehicles.
At present, we have already developed a prototype
system, 7 cameras at two locasions are being used for
detection.
In this paper, we will report on the results and the
method.
I .SYSTEMCONFIGURATION
A. System Configuration
Figure 1 shows the configuration of the prototype
system we have built. The prototype system uses seven
cameras at two locations for detection.
Accident detecting device:
* Receives images from cameras, processes them and
detects accidents.
* Stores moving images in memory, and outputs the stored
image frames from just before the accident occurred.
* Issues alarms corresponding to the seventy of the
accident to the center, when it detects accidents.
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 Fig.3 Waming on Sign Board
A. Camera
Conventional CCD cameras small enough to be
installed on light poles (to ensure ease of installation on
the highway) are used. Figure 4 shows an installed
camera.

Fig4 External View of Camera

B. Image Processing Equipment

Figure 5 shows an external view of the
equipment,while Figure 6 shows a block diagram of the
detecting equipment itself. The functions of each block are
outlined below.

Display Alarm rapidly Confirm Aceident On MOnitQr "v

00 the Sign Board in Traffic C ~ n h l Centcr
l

Fig.2 Information Flow

II .ACCIDENT DETECTION METHOD

Fig.5 Extemal View of Image Processing Equipment

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46
 changes.If certain conditions are met,an abnormal state is
determined to exist. Such conditions include changes in
traffic flow before an accident occurs, and changes in
...............................Image .........................Unit
................Processing

[
.... individual motor vehicle speed. As for lane changes, we
.....................
~

~
CCD
camera;
- IZZHFHZI ....................
~ Monitor!
TV
.................... !
1
decided not to use these as a reference because lane
changes may occur simply due to the road curvature and
..................... angle of view, independently of accidents.Figure 8 shows
..................... processing flow.
i VTR ~

.................... :

Fig.6 Block Diagram of Image Processing Unit

A D converter and frame memo '

The video signal received%om the camera is A D
converted
and stored in frame memory.
Feature extraction unit:
' A I A I ai I
At set intervals (0.1 sec)& difference in intensity
between the image stored in the frame memory and that of
the background (the road surface) is calculated, compressed bv \.b"l
and sent to the processing unit.
lime
Processing unit: tinr,
A motor vehicle is first detected from the data extracted c) ~ O f ~ L m a s lQsscmvrhiasprd
d)
and compressed by the feature extraction unit. Fig.6 Processing Flow of Algorithm 2
Then the movement of the vehicle is studied over a
specified time interval(0.1 sec) to determine abnormal Algorithm (3)--Measurement of a secondary traffic flow
movement, whereby accidents can be detected. At the same obstruction (traffic jam, etc.) at specified intervals as a
time,traffic flow parameters such as average speed and result of an accident.This is determined by traffic flow
traffic volume are calculated. parameters such as average speed.
D/A converter: We detected accidents respectively with detection
The image stored in frame memory is D/A converted algorithm (1),(2) and(3). Accidents were detected within 2
and converted into a video signal. seconds with methods (1) and (2).With method (3) using
average speed, it sometimes took more than one minute
C. Detection Algorithms before
A system such as this can use any of the following three detection, because it depends on whether there are
detection algorithms: vehicles following behind or not.Therefore,We adopted
Algorithm (ll--Detection of motor vehicles stopped due to Algorithm 2 for our prototype system due to it suitability
accidents.The signal is compared with the signal from the for quick responses and accuracy.
road surface when there is a difference in intensity greater
than the prescribed amount,then signal is extracted.The Ill .TEST RESULTS
extracted signal is regarded as a stopped vehicle when it
has not moved over some time period.Figure 7 shows A. Field Experiment
processing flow. Accident detection:
Since we were unable to cause accidents deliberately,
to study the detection method using an image processor,
we installed four ITV cameras on-site to collect image
data (step l), and we installed an image processor on-site
to experiment with on-line detection (step 2).Figure 9
Shows layout of the 4 cameras.Experiments were
I- performed with cameras mounted at two heights: 5 meters
and 6.5 meters.

n
+
-

Fig.7 Processing Flow of Algorithm 1

Algorithm (2kDetection of accidents due to changes in
vehicle movement such as speed change in accident / AWAZA a"
vehicles or vehicles behind the accident ones and lane Fig.9 Layout of the Four Cameras(AWAZA CURVE)

1994 Vehicle Navigation & Information Systems Conference Raredings

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 We collected data for two accidents over a period of
three weeks in step 1 of data collection.We collected data
on 16 accidents over a period of four months in step 2 of
data collection when those accidents were reported. By
automatic measuring using an image processor, we
collected data on 20 other accidents in addition to the 16
reported.
The reason that more accidents were detected by
automatic measurement using the image processor was
that some vehicles could still operate under their own
power even after the accidents, so some people did not
bother to call the emergency number and drove away.
We processed images from the two accidents collected
in step 1 with the image processor, and we have confirmed
that these two accidents w r e positively detected and that
an alarm was issued.We detected the full conditions of the
16 reported accidents with the on-line processing via the
connected image processor in step 2. We also detected 20
unreported accidents.An example of an accident is shown
in Figure 10.
Sppcd of Vehicle Msvl Sped DsDcnbn of Accident
Tr& Volume(1 minute m) Tnfhc VolOm(1 minute p s t )
Fig.10 Example of the Accident Detection
Measurement of mffic parametex is important to
detect accidents.
*Traffic volume:
We compared accuracy of measurementof traffic from
the randomly selected data for the two cameras installed at
different heights No.1 (5 m) and No.2 (6.5 m). Table 1
shows the results at every measuring condition.
Table 1 Measuring Traffic Volume
Under normal traffic flow conditions, the detection rate
exceeded 90% in daytime, twilight or night-time. During
traffic congestion, the traffic volume was reported as lower
than actual because the short distance between vehicles
resulted in overlapping vehicle images which were rather
difficult for the system to identiy as individual vehicles.
As for the comparison of accuracy of measurement
resulting from the difference in height of installed
cameras,the accuracy was better for camera No.3. because it
was higher and could separate vehicles more clearly.low
camera height resulted in inability to detect vehicles because
1% Vehide Nangation & Momation Systems Conference Proaedinp
48
vehicles in the lane farther from the camera become hidden
behind the vehicles in the lane closer to the camera. This kind
of situation often happened with camera No.1.
*Traffic speed:
Since we can not compare the measured speed with the
real speed, we let the image processor process the data
collected at the same time by four cameras, and obtained the
average speed for one minute measures, as shown in Figure
11.
The average speed captured by camera 1 was 5 km/hr
less than that of cameras 2 to 4.
Other than that, changes in speed appear quite similar
and these cameras functioned well in capturing traffic flow.
Also, traffic density changed from light to heavy and vice
versa every three minutes.
B. Prototype System Operating Conditions
About a year has passed since the system was first put
into operation. During that time, 79 accidents occurred, 69
of which the system was able to detect automatically, in real
time. We were able to verify the following as accident
occurrence conditions, and benefits obtainable through the
use of the system.
(a) Accident Modes
(1) Vehicles Still Capable of 'haveling Under Their Own
Power
We have found that about 30% of the cases involved
accidents where a vehicle sideswiped or ran into guard rails,
etc. and then drove on without calling in to the traffic
control center. Although there were some variations
(depending on the amount of uaffic), in the majority of
cases, the elapsed time from the time these vehicles came to
a stop and the time
they starting moving again was between 10 and 20
seconds. The average elapsed time was 55 seconds.
(2) Speed at Which Vehicles Entered the Curve
Over 80% of vehicles causing accidents were in the
passing lane. The vast majority entered the curve at
roughly 80 km/h,far in excess of the 40 km/h speed limit.
One function provided in the accident detection system
was the capability to accumulate at any time 80 frames of
video in memory, and to make a video recording of the 80
frames collected immediately prior to the point in time at
which the accident was detected. Figure 12 shows an
example of a series of images stored at the time of an
accident.
(b) Benefits Obtainable Through the Use of the System
(1) Reduced Accident Detection Time
In the past, the center learned that an accident had
occurred by receiving a call from an emergency telephone,
seeing it on a traffic monitor camera, or having it reported
by a highway patrol officer. This took an average of 8
minutes. The use of the system under study drastically
 Fig.12 Example of Stored Images on The Accident
reduced the time it took the center to become cognizant of
the fact that an accident had occurred.
(2) Providing Warnings to Traffic Approaching From
Behind
The benefit of warning drivers of an accident ahead
was assessed by analyzing the distribution of speeds of
entry into the curve. The average speed of entry into the
curve was normally 65 km/h, but it was determined that
right after the aaffic information sign was lighted up, this
speed decreased by 5 km/h to 60 kmh.
When the message bemg displayed on the sign was
changed by the uaflic conaol center (e.g., to "ACCIDENT
AHEAD ON LEFT"), we were able to c o n f m that the
distribution of traffic between left and right lanes changed
in response to the message. Providing information to
drivers, then, can be thought to have resulted in improved
safety through prompt traffic conaol.
lV. CONCLUSIONS
We confmed through experimentation and through
the use of a prototype system that it is possible to detect
sudden unexpected events such as accidents, etc., using
image processing. After testing three different accident
detection algorithms, we arrived at the conclusion that the
best method with respect "detection instantaneousness"
(least elapsed time from occurrence to detection) is a
method that detects abrupt changes in state of motion, and
stopped vehicles, by performing a tracking process on
each vehicle.
We were also able to define an image processing
1994 Vehicle Navigation & Information Systems Conference Proceedin@
algorithm that is robust with respect to changes in outdoor
environmental factors such as sunlight, rain, shadows, etc.
We were also able to show that if the optimum camera
installation height can be ascertained by measuring certain
traffic volume parameters, the traffic count and speed can
both be measured with at least 90% accuracy.
From the above, we were able to conclude that for the
best detection accuracy, TV cameras should be installed at
a height of 6.5 meters, they should have a range of 40 to
50 meters, that there should be two or three lanes of
traffic, and that the cameras should provide a rear view.
We reviewed the entire system to enumerate the basic
functions required for the detection system and the uaffic
control center with the emphasis on the accident
information needed for both the drivers approaching from
behind and the traffic control center to ensure rapid
response to accidents and prevent secondary disasters.
Particularly useful was the capability (provided as a
detection system function) to continuously retain 80
frames
of video in memory, and to make a video recording of the
80 frames collected immediately prior to the point in time
at which an accident was detected. This function proved to
be useful for the testing of detection algorithms and for
gaining a clear understanding of accident conditions.
In the future, we hope to continue this effort by
conducting trial operation of a series of prototype systems
for the detection of unexpected sudden phenomena. We
would like to study the improvement and expansion of
detection algorithms, what alarm outputs the system should
provide, and new ways of providing information.
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 REFERENCE

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SING-TECHNOLOGY-IEEE
International Conference on Image
Processing,1992.pp.566-570
[3]A.Tsuge & H.takigawa & H.Osuga &
K.Morisaki.1993.ACCIDENT VEHICLE AUTOMATIC
RECOGNITION SYSTEM BY IMAGE PROCESSING
T E C H N O L O G Y - 1 2 IRF WORLD
CONGRESS, 1993.V01.3.pp.931-940

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