VisioSignNet: A Dual-Interactive Neural Network for enhanced traffic sign detection

Abstract

Effective traffic sign detection is crucial for the safety and operational efficiency of autonomous vehicle navigation systems, particularly in dynamically changing environments. Addressing the primary challenges of long-range pixel dependencies and enhancing the detectability of small objects in complex scenes, we present VisioSignNet: A Dual-Interactive Neural Network designed for enhanced traffic sign detection. This architecture incorporates Local and Global Interactive Modules (LGIM) and Enhancing Channel and Space Interaction (ECSI) modules. The LGIM is engineered to balance local and global feature interactions, while the ECSI optimizes the interchange of information across channel and spatial dimensions. Their synergistic interaction not only enhances the perceptual field at early processing stages but also significantly improves the recognition of small-scale, critical traffic signs. Evaluated on the TT100K and GTSDB datasets, VisioSignNet achieved mean average precision (mAP) scores of 90.5% and 97%, respectively, with a model size of 26M parameters. Its enhanced variant, VisioSignNet_l, with 34M parameters, reached mAP scores of 93.2% and 97.8%. These outcomes substantiate VisioSignNet’s efficacy in tackling the complexities of traffic sign detection, confirming its potential as a robust solution in the field of autonomous driving technologies.