Automated Region-Based Vehicle Conflict Detection Using Computer Vision Techniques

An approach for vehicle conflict analysis based on three-dimensional (3-D) vehicle detection is presented. Techniques for quantitative conflict measurements often use a point trajectory representation for vehicles. More accurate conflict measurement can be facilitated with a region-based vehicle representation instead. This paper describes a computer vision approach for extracting vehicle trajectories from video sequences. The method relied on a fusion of background subtraction and feature-based tracking to provide a three-dimensional (3-D) cuboid representation of the vehicle. Standard conflict measures, including time to collision and postencroachment time, were computed with the use of the 3-D cuboid vehicle representations. The use of these conflict measures was demonstrated on a challenging data set of video footage. Results showed that the region-based representation could provide more precise calculation of traffic conflict indicators compared with approaches based on a point representation.