Apparatus and method for detecting bar-type traffic sign in traffic sign recognition system

1. An apparatus for detecting a bar-type sign in a traffic sign recognition system, the apparatus comprising:

a traffic sign detection unit for receiving image information including a traffic sign from a camera module, and detecting a traffic sign from the image information;

a recognition region setting unit for setting a recognition region for detection of a bar- type sign on the traffic sign detected by the traffic sign detection unit;

a principal component analysis PCA operation processing unit for applying a PCA algorithm to all pixels in the recognition region set by the recognition region setting unit, and determining an eigenvector; and

a sign determination unit for determining a deviation of an angle from the angle of the eigenvector, comparing the deviation with a threshold value, and determining whether the traffic sign corresponds to a bar-type sign.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the PCA operation processing unit comprises:

a pixel conversion unit for converting all pixels in the recognition region into inverted, binarized or normalized color coordinates; and

an operation unit for calculating a mean vector of the converted pixels, calculating a covariance matrix based on the mean vector value, and calculating an eigenvector.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the sign determination unit comprises:

a deviation calculation unit for determining the angle of the eigenvector, and calculating the deviation of the determined angle; and

a bar-type sign determination unit for comparing the deviation of the angle with the threshold value, and determining a bar-type sign.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the deviation calculation unit calculates the deviation “d” as follows:

d=|α−45°| (wherein “d” represents a deviation, and “α” represents the angle of an eigenvector); wherein

when the deviation “d” is less than a threshold value “Pt”, which is preset to determine an end-of-speed-limit sign, the bar-type sign determination unit determines that a corresponding sign corresponds to an end-of-speed-limit sign.

5. The apparatus according to claim 3 , further comprising a sign output unit for outputting a traffic sign corresponding to a determined bar-type sign when the sign determination unit has determined a sign to be a bar-type sign.

6. The apparatus according to claim 3 , further comprising a database for storing traffic signs meant by bar-type signs which correspond to the respective ranges of differences between deviations and the threshold value, according to the ranges of differences between the deviations and the threshold value,

wherein the sign determination unit determines the meaning of a bar-type sign according to the range of the difference between a deviation and the threshold value.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the traffic sign detection unit is additionally configured to detect a traffic sign from the image information using object detection, to track a traffic sign successively appearing in the image information, and to eliminate a misrecognized object.

8. A method for detecting a bar-type sign in a traffic sign recognition system, the method comprising:

a traffic sign detection step of detecting a traffic sign from image information including the traffic sign;

a recognition region setting step of setting a recognition region on the traffic sign detected through the traffic sign detection step;

a principal component analysis (PCA) operation processing step of applying a PCA algorithm to all pixels in the recognition region set through the recognition region setting step, and determining an eigenvector; and

a sign determination step of determining an angle of the eigenvector, comparing a deviation of the determined angle with a threshold value, and determining whether to correspond to a bar-type sign.