Detection of pedestrian crossing and measurement of crossing length - an image-based navigational aid for blind people

Pedestrian crossings are dangerous places for a visually impaired person to cross safely. This paper describes a simple method for the detection of the location of a pedestrian crossing as well as measurement of its length to enhance the safety and mobility of blind people while crossing a road. A crossing is characterized by zebra pattern i.e. by evenly spaced white stripes on a usual black road surface. Detection of the crossing location as well as measurement of its length is done using this criterion from the image captured by a single camera. The method at first checks for the existence of a crossing; if there exists a crossing then it goes to measure the crossing length. Experimental results on a large number of street scenes with and without crossings demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.