Detection of Passenger Compartment Violations

A moving violation is any violation of the law committed by the driver of a vehicle while it is in motion. Moving violations can typically be identified by observing the behavior of a vehicle such as its speed or running a stop sign or red traffic light. However, several moving violations require observation into the passenger compartment of a vehicle. Failure to wear seat belts and operating a handheld telecommunications device (i.e., cell phone) while driving are two common passenger compartment violations concerning safety. Another type of passenger compartment violation is related to efficient use of roadways. Managed lanes such as high‐occupancy vehicle (HOV) and high‐occupancy tolling (HOT) lanes require a minimum number of occupants within the vehicle or a tolling price that varies depending upon the number of occupants. Imaging technology and computer vision can provide automated or semiautomated enforcement of these violations. This chapter overviews existing computer vision based methods for seat belt usage, cell phone usage, and HOV/HOT lane enforcements.