Introduction:

In recent years, extensive research is being made by major car manufacturing companies on real-time and automatic recognition of traffic signs, so that it can be a part of the so called “Driver Support Systems”. Traffic sign recognition (TSR) can be considered part of the bigger problem of autonomous vehicles. An autonomous vehicle system relies on vision-based recognition of surrounding area in order to make driving decisions. This vision-based recognition system may function as the feedback provider for control of steering wheel, accelerator, brake, etc. It may recognize road and lane to allow control system follow the course of own vehicle, detect obstacles on the road till control system avoids them, detect the passing vehicles (e.g. by side or back cameras) to notify the control system about probable hazards and detect and interpret the traffic signs to provide feedback for safe driving. Traffic signs provide important information for drivers about road condition and hazards. Their discriminating shape and colors make them easily recognizable by humans. Same actors can help development of a vision based TSR system.

Beside the application of TSR in autonomous vehicles, it can also serve as an assistant driver (e.g. when combined with speedometer output) to notify the driver about approaching a traffic sign (e.g. even before driver sees it) or his risky behavior (like driving above the speed limit). There have been several big projects in the autonomous vehicle area. PROMETHEUS (Program for European Traffic with Highest Efficiency and Unprecedented Safety) was an initiative started in 1986 in Europe to stimulate research in development of a transport system to exploit full potential of information and telecommunication technologies to improve traffic efficiency and safety. Safe driving was one of the three identified main work areas and meant to employ autonomous vehicle control or safer driving with less mental load on the driver.

Problem Statement

How can we automate and classify Traffic signs to reduce road accidents?

Traffic signs are an integral part of our road infrastructure. Without such useful signs, we would most likely be faced with more accidents, as drivers would not be given critical feedback on how fast they could safely go, or informed about road works, sharp turn, or school crossings ahead.

Naturally, autonomous vehicles must also abide by road legislation and therefore recognize and understand traffic signs. The goal of traffic sign detection is to identify the region of interest (ROI) in which a traffic sign is supposed to be found and verify the sign after a large-scale search for candidates within an image and this has a very major role to play in self-driving cars, which is the future of automobile industry.