Traffic Sign Assist

Traffic Sign Recognition is a technology by which a vehicle is able to recognise the traffic signs put on the road e.g. "speed limit" or "children" or "turn ahead". This is part of the features collectively called ADAS. The technology is being developed by many automotive suppliers, including Continental and Delphi. It uses Image processing techniques to detect the traffic signs. The detection methods can be generally divided into color based, shape based and learning based methods.

Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals is a treaty signed in 1968 which has been able to standardize traffic signs across different countries. About 52 countries have signed this treaty which includes 31 countries from Europe. The convention has broadly classified the road signs into seven categories designated with letters A-H. This standardasiation has been the main drive for helping the OEMs develop a traffic sign recognition system, which could be used globally.

These first TSR systems which recognize speed limits were developed in cooperation by Mobileye and Continental AG. They first appeared in late 2008 on the redesigned BMW 7-Series, and the following year on the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Currently these systems only detect the round speed limit signs found all across Europe (e.g.).

Second generation systems can also detect overtaking restrictions. It was introduced in 2008 in the Opel Insignia, later followed by the Opel Astra and the Saab 9-5. This technology is also available on the 2011 Volkswagen Phaeton and since 2012 in Volvo S80, V70, XC70, XC60, S60, V60 and V40 (model year 2013-), as a technology called Road Sign Information. They are not able to recognise city limit signs, which in most European countries have meaning for speed limits, as they are too equal to direction signs.

How does a Traffic sign recognition system work? Traffic signs can be analyzed using forward facing cameras in many of the modern cars, vehicles and trucks. One of the basic use case of a traffic sign recognition system in the speed limit. Most of the GPS data would procure speed information, but additional speed limit traffic signs can also be used to extract information and display it in the dashboard of the car to alert the driver about the road sign. This is an advanced driver assistance feature available in most of the high end cars, mainly in European oem vehicles.

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Wikipedia