International Journal of Emerging Technology in Computer Science & Electronics (IJETCSE)
ISSN: 0976-1353 Volume 14 Issue 2 APRIL 2015.
An efficient traffic control system implementation
using Image Matching
PRANAV PATIL
4th Semester, Dept of ECE
Jain College of Engineering, Belgaum
ppranav618@gmail.com
sameena.pathan.k@gmail.com
Abstract: Traffic congestion is a condition on road networks that
occurs as use magnifies, and is described by slower speeds,
longer trip times, and augmented conveyance queuing. When
traffic postulate is great enough that the interaction between
vehicles slows the speed of the traffic pour, this results in some
congestion. As demand approaches the competency of a road (or
of the intersections along the road), extreme traffic jam sets in.
When vehicles are fully stopped for epoch of time, this
conversation is known as a traffic jam or traffic snarl-up. For
this, we must need an efficient traffic control system. Automatic
traffic control and surveillance are important for road usage
and management. Timers for each stage are the simplest way to
control the traffic. Another way is to use electronic sensors in
order to find out vehicles, and produce signal. Here we suggest a
system that implement image processing algorithm in real time
traffic light control which will control the traffic light efficiently.
A web camera is placed in each stage of traffic light that will
capture the still images of the road where we want to control the
traffic. Then those captured images are successively matched
using image matching with a reference image which is an empty
road image. The traffic is governed according to percentage of
matching.
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, traffic congestion has become a
significant problem .Traffic congestion and jams are one of
the main reasons for increasing transportation costs due to the
wasted time and extra fuel. Building new roads and lanes are
just not possible any longer, but building intelligence into the
roads and lanes with advanced technology is certainly
possible. Hence, there is need for a better and efficient traffic
congestion system. The existing control systems have to be
used in a more intelligent way in order to increase the traffic
throughput and decrease total travel times. Hence, reducing
waiting times before traffic lights can save our society
billions of rupees annually. To make traffic light controllers
more intelligent, we exploit the emergence of novel
technologies such as communication networks and Image
processing by regulating the traffic demand at each
intersection in the network. The goal is to avoid traffic
conflicts and shorten the queue length at a stop line. Our aim
is to develop the system at signals. This system will have
multifunctional operations. The system will firstly measure
the traffic density at different signals and accordingly change
the time delays for traffic lights the side at which the traffic is
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MS. SAMEENA PATHAN
Faculty Dept of ECE,
Jain College of Engineering, Belgaum
high the signal will remain green for more time. Secondly it
will also communicate with the adjacent junction signal. Both
the signals will collectively manage the traffic depending on
the density.
With the advances in the technology of micro
electromechanical systems (MEMS) and development in
Wireless communications. It is possible to design such
system to overcome daily problems of traffic congestion. The
simplest way for controlling a traffic light uses timer for each
phase. Another way is to use electronic sensors in order to
detect vehicles, and produce signal that cycles. We propose a
system for controlling the traffic light by image processing.
The system will detect vehicles through images.
Real time traffic light control.
Automatic traffic monitoring.
Detection of traffic density.
Setting up a Road network.
Reduce traffic congestion.
II. LITERATURE SURVEY
In 1868 illuminated traffic signal was installed in
London near the Houses of Parliament. The device had
semaphore arms to signal drivers and pedestrians during the
day and it had red and green lenses illuminated by gas for
viewing at night. The police officer would turn the signal 90
degrees to position the semaphore arms and the colored
lenses towards traffic as needed. This was the first recorded
use of illuminated red and green colors to control traffic. In
1912 Salt Lake City, UT police detective Lester Wire built a
two-color traffic signal that used electric illumination. In
1914 the American Traffic Signal Company installed two-
color signals in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1920 William Potts, a
Detroit Traffic Police Superintendent, designed the first 4-
way three-color traffic control device that is recognized as the
basis for the modern traffic signal. In India, Mumbai`s traffic
system is controlled by Real Time Intelligent Urban Traffic
Management Technology.
 International Journal of Emerging Technology in Computer Science & Electronics (IJETCSE)
ISSN: 0976-1353 Volume 14 Issue 2 APRIL 2015.

After edge detection procedure both reference and

real time images are matched and traffic lights can
be controlled based on percentage of matching.
Table I. Types of traffic signal systems: If the matching is between 0 to 10% - green light is
Type System Country on for 90 seconds. If the matching is between 10
Fixed time TRANSYT UK to50% - green light is on for 60 seconds. If the
1.
systems. matching is between 50 to 70% - green light is on
2. Plan SCATS Australia for 30seconds. If the matching is between 70 to 90%
generation - green light is on for 20 seconds. If the matching is
systems. between 90 to 100% - red light is on for 60 seconds.
3. Traffic SCOOT UK
responsive A camera will be mounted on the each lane of the signal on a
centralized junction. CCD Cameras will feed the video to a
systems. COMPUTER. A MATLAB based digital image processing
will be done on the video frames to calculate the amount of
traffic. The process of digital image processing is done in
following steps:
III. METHODOLOGY APPLIED
The steps that are followed are as follows. 1) Image acquisition: One or several image sensor produces
Image acquisition digital image. The image may be 2D or 3D from depending
RGB to gray conversion on the type of sensor used. Image sensor types include light-
sensitive cameras, range sensors, tomography devices,
Image enhancement
ultrasonic cameras, etc.
Image matching using edge detection
2) Image Segmentation: In the analysis of the objects in
Phase 1- images it is essential to distinguish between the objects of
interest and the rest. This latter group is also referred to as
Initially image acquisition is done with the help of the background. The pixels in the image will be converted
web camera. into a series of 0s and ls. This can be done by getting the
First image of the road is captured, when there is no grayscale value of a pixel and comparing it to a certain pixel
traffic on the road. value. Segmentation lessens the area of concern and makes
This empty roads image is saved as reference image the system run faster.
at a particular location specified in the program.
3) Motion Tracking: Can be off-line or real-time. In offline,
RGB to gray conversion is done on the reference
the entire image sequence is stored. The tracking uses frame
image. differencing algorithm to generate a motion map
Now correction is done on the reference gray image .
to achieve image enhancement. 4) Background Subtraction: The process of finding the
Edge detection of this reference image is done transient objects by comparing the current frame to the
thereafter with the help of Prewitt edge detection background image.
operator.
5) Morphological Operations:
(i) Opening: Removes foreground details that are smaller
Phase 2-
than the structuring element. It is also used as a noise
Images of the road are captured.
removal operator;
RGB to gray conversion is done on the sequence of (ii) Closing: Removes background detailsholes, gaps, inside
captured images. corners, etc.that are smaller than the structuring element. It
Now correction is done on each of the captured gray is also used to link components (i.e., broken lines) that should
image to achieve image enhancement. be connected.
Edge detection of these real time images of the road
is now done with the help of prewitt edge detection 6) Image Correlation: The process of computing the
correlation for each Region of Interest (ROI) of the current
operator.
image to the ROI of the background image.
Real time image is captured and processed using image
Phase 3-
processing. Various operations are performs such as
subtraction operation, gray scale operation, binary operation,

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology in Computer Science & Electronics (IJETCSE)
ISSN: 0976-1353 Volume 14 Issue 2 APRIL 2015.

opening operation, fill hole operation, erosion operation and
after that get total number of vehicles present on junction.
The final count is given to master microcontroller through
serial communication using RS232.
Fig.2. Images for heavy traffic (a) Difference Image (b)
Threshold BW (c) Colored-Labeled Objects
The figure 3 indicates the visual appearance of image when
there is heavy traffic.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The simulation is performed in Matlab 7.2 version. The
figure 1 indicates the visual appearance of image when there
is no traffic.

(a) (b) (c) Fig.4. Circuit Simulation

Fig.1. Images for no traffic (a) Difference Image (b)
Threshold BW (c) Colored-Labeled Objects
The figure 2 indicates the visual appearance of image when
there is moderate traffic.
(a) (b) (c)
Fig.2. Images for moderate traffic (a) Difference Image (b)
Threshold BW (c) Colored-Labeled Objects.
Emergency Vehicle Detection:
The video is also analyzed for the detection of
emergency vehicles through their flashing red lights. By
specifying a threshold, we have isolated the areas with high
intensity of red light and comparatively lesser intensity of
blue and green color. The resultant image is shown in Fig.
(b). As we can see, the headlights of the vehicle were also
detected, which led to an erroneous output. Hence the red
light must satisfy the additional condition of blinking. This is
achieved by taking account for the fact that the red light shall
appear in every third frame only. The other lights do not
appear in the image sequence with this frequency and hence
are eliminated. This leads to the conclusion of the presence of
an emergency vehicle as shown in (c). Our model was tested
for ambulance during various times of the day and was found
to be successful. In addition, the beacon can be identified
even if the emergency vehicle is in an inclined position with
respect to the camera as shown in Fig(c).

(a) (b) (c)

(a)

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology in Computer Science & Electronics (IJETCSE)
ISSN: 0976-1353 Volume 14 Issue 2 APRIL 2015.

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(c)
Fig. 5. (a) Image of a vehicle during diurnal (b) Detection of
all lights (c) Emergency vehicle detected.

Forming ANN (Artificial Neural Network):

The systems output is in form of Decimal value. This
value depends upon the no. of vehicle or the color density
detected. It may be difficult to add these value in a loop and
give them to a micro-controller for signal switching. Rather
ANN can be formed which will provide the output in 3
levels:
1. -1 for no/low traffic,
2. 0 for moderate traffic, &
3. +1 for heavy traffic.

The neurons can be so trained that they can count the no. of
vehicles or measure the color density and provide the output
in above mentioned levels. This will increase the accuracy of
the system and will be an easy task for signal switching.

V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE

The aim to detect the density of traffic is achieved in
this paper. The matlab algorithm detects the density of
traffic ie., either LOW, Moderate, or HIGH. In this paper
we have successfully achieved to change the states of
signals based on the traffic density. Matlab algorithm
successfully communicates with other signals and also
changes their timer values. Digital image processing is
also done succesffuly.

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