Road condition monitoring system based on a stereo camera

This paper presents a method and evaluation results to monitor and detect road conditions (ice, water, snow and dry asphalt). The developed device bases on light polarization changes when reflected from road surface. The recognition capability has been improved with texture analysis which estimates contrast content of an image. Test drives were performed with a vehicle equipped also with a commercial solution from Vaisala which was used as the reference sensor. The results show that the proposed solution does not currently adapt to different conditions perfectly well. Therefore, further development targets have been identified to include not only more adjustable classifier but externally lighting to stabilizing ambient illumination.