Intelligent Pedestrian Traffic Lights Recognizes Pedestrians’ Intent to Cross the Road

“The green phase can be extended in the case of large groups of persons, who require more time to cross the road. And if persons leave the waiting area before the lights have turned to green, this is also passed on to the lights. The traffic lights subsequently don’t switch to green and there are no unnecessary waiting times for motorized traffic,” says Horst Possegger from the Institute of Computer Graphics and Vision of the University of Graz. The system can recognize whoever likes to cross the road in a few seconds. “It requires one second to estimate the intention – after two seconds the estimation becomes reliable. Using the current configurations, our system signals that wish to cross three to four seconds before the button is pushed.”

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Should the system indicate that several people will be crossing at the same time, the green light will stay on for a longer period. And should they change their mind about crossing, the light does not change to green.

It took TU Graz researchers two years to develop the system which is expected to be installed on and in pedestrian lights in Vienna by the end of 2020. Among the biggest challenges was the small size of the traffic light’s switch box in which the hardware for a powerful local computer had to be housed. Another was the need for the system to be able to run at all times, in any weather, and in spite of any fluctuations in voltage. A monitor also had to be included to detect and report any faults.