Speed estimation thanks to two images from one stationary camera

Abstract

This paper presents speed estimation of a moving object thanks to two images captured within a known time interval from one stationary un-calibrated camera. The development is currently applicable to rigid objects animated by a pure translation and requires the localization of corresponding points in both images and the specification of one real dimension. An interesting solution based on an equivalent stereo problem is suggested. It considers the object stationary and searches for the virtual camera motion which would produce the same images. The mathematical formulation is simple using 3D vectors and the camera parameters: focal length, CCD size and pixel size. The developed software package was tested for vehicle speed second assessment of the velocity captured by the LIDAR system LMS-06 distributed by secuRoad SA. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.