New efficient vanishing point detection from a single road image based on intrinsic line orientation and color texture properties

Abstract

Detecting the vanishing point from a single road image is a challenging problem because there is very limited information in the input image that can help the computer to deduce the genuine location of vanishing point. Besides, the cluttered ambient environment in a real road image sometimes will hinder rather than assist the detection. Learning both the advantages and the limitations of current edge-based and texture-based approaches motivates us to propose a new vanishing point detection method that exploits the intrinsic geometric line structures and color texture properties of general roads. Our approach integrates the efficiency of line segments of edge-based methods, and the orientation coherence concept that is frequently applied in texture-based methods, which can be of great help to improve the accuracy of selecting the right line segments for vanishing point detection. The proposed method has been implemented and tested on over 1000 various road images. These road images exhibit large variations in color, texture, illumination condition, and ambient environment. The experimental results demonstrate that this new method is both efficient and effective in detecting vanishing point when compared to the state-of-the-art edge-based and texture-based methods.