Vehicle localisation using a single camera

Lots of rear end collisions due to driver inattention have been identified as a major automotive safety issue. A short advance warning can reduce the number and severity of the rear end collisions. This paper describes a Forward Collision Warning (FCW) system based on monocular vision, and presents a new vehicle detection method: appearance-based hypothesis generation, template tracking-based hypothesis verification which can remove false positive detections and automatic image matting for detection refinement. The FCW system uses time to collision (TTC) to trigger the warning.In order to compute time to collision (TTC), firstly, haar and adaboost algorithm is utilized to detect the vehicle; Secondly, we use simplified Lucas-Kanade algorithm and virtual edge to remove false positive detection and use automatic image matting to do detection refinement; Thirdly, hierarchical tracking system is introduced for vehicle tracking; Camera calibration is utilized to get the headway distance and TTC at last. The use of a single low cost camera results in an affordable system which is simple to install. The FCW system has been tested in outdoor environment, showing robust and accurate performance.