Abstract

In this paper, we propose an efficient traffic light detection (TLD) method as an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) for elderly drivers. Since an increase in traffic accidents is associated with the aging population and an increase in elderly drivers causes a serious social problem, the provision of ADAS for older drivers via TLD is becoming a necessary(Ed: verify word choice: necessary?) public service. Therefore, we propose an economical TLD method that can be implemented with a simple black box (built in camera) and a smartphone in the near future. The system utilizes a color pre-processing method to differentiate between the stop and go signals. A mathematical morphology algorithm is used to further enhance the traffic light detection and a circular Hough transform is utilized to detect the traffic light correctly. From the simulation results of the computer vision and image processing based on a proposed algorithm on Matlab, we found that the proposed TLD method can detect the stop and go signals from the traffic lights not only in daytime, but also at night. In the future, it will be possible to reduce the traffic accident rate by recognizing the traffic signal and informing the elderly of how to drive by voice.