Fundaments in Luminance and Retroreflectivity Measurements of Vertical Traffic Signs Using a Color Digital Camera

This paper is a study of the influences of the different parameters which affect the photometric evaluation of light-emitting surfaces (due to reflection or self-emission) when a conventional color digital camera is used. The overall purpose of this paper is to evaluate the luminance and the reflectivity of the vertical traffic sign with the camera in order to provide an automatic recognition of deteriorated reflective sheeting material of which the traffic signs were made. This paper describes how the A/D converter output signal given by a pixel of the digital camera can be related to the luminance and the reflectivity of the corresponding surface element whose image is formed on a pixel. Thus, each surface element of the traffic sign's surface can be separately evaluated. By photometrically calibrating the camera, we have been able to prove this relationship in our experiments.