Estimating traffic intensity using profile images on rectified images

In this paper a technique is presented to estimate the traffic intensity for each lane. This method does not require background estimation or even the identification and tracking of individual vehicles. It requires only the identification of each lane and the estimation of a bird eye view of the highway using a rectification method. To each rectified lane, an intensity profile is computed along the traffic flow direction for each frame, obtaining an image that represents the displacement as a time function. The main idea is to search for the best matching profile for different times and spaces on each lane and consequently obtain the velocity profile.