Sign recognition project

[LaurDobre]

Hello guys!

As you can see in the title I have some questions about a project I am working on.

To get things started, I am studying Automation, Computers and Electronics, and, along with 2 colleagues, we have to build an autonomous mini-vehicle that can drive between two while lines on a track and recognise few traffic signs  (such as: Turn Left, Turn Right, Stop, etc) for our diploma exam.

Our coordonating teacher`s first idea was to buy the myRIO board, because he had some previous experience with some FPGA based systems such as compactRIO. So we bought it. After that, he wanted us to try to do some image processing using Fourier Transform to obain some sort of graphs (for example: the two white lines on the track would give us some waveforms and we could tell our vehicle to stay between them). But the problem is that we all are beginners in LabView programming so we didn't manage to do this thing.

After that, we wanted to try something else. We managed to find a Face Recognition project that used some templates (eyes, lips and nose) and we thought we could modify that one by adding our own templates (the traffic sings) but that didn`t quite work either. The program is not as precise as we would want it to be.

So, my questions are: Has someone managed to do this kind of thing ? And if so, what is the best way to do it ? 

Please keep in mind the fact that we are new to this LabView / Graphical programming and we are trying very hard to learn it.

I hope I gave you all the necessary details and I assure that every advice you give us will help A LOT.

Thank you very much !

[brandonj]

LaurDobre,

It sound like you are able to acquire the images, but for some reason what you have is not recognizing your signs sufficiently. What do your signs look like? Also, could you post the code so far? 

[mikeporter]

Also, recognizing traffic signs is actually a much simpler problem than faces in that while all traffic signs are (by law) geometric shapes, faces never are... Except of course for a roommate I had while in the Air Force -- but that's another story...

What signs do you have to distinguish?

Mike...

[LaurDobre]

Thank you for your replies.

I attached what we managed to do so far. The "Face Recognition" project is the one where we added our own templates. The other three signs in the Signs.rar, besides the traffic ones(left,right,stop), represent three small wooden pieces that we have to drop in a certain area. For example, if our vehicle detects de "L" shaped sign, it has to drop the "L" shaped piece under it. But I was thinking that if we could recognize the traffic signs, we could do the same thing to the other signs..that's why I didn't mention them in my first post.

With the linefollowing VI we are trying to make the vehicle to stay between the two lines of the track. I don't know if it's a good method but we literally just started working on it and I thought I should post it also.