A Vision-Based Hierarchical Framework for Autonomous Front-Vehicle Taillights Detection and Signal Recognition

Automatically recognizing rear light signals of front vehicles can significantly improve driving safety by automatic alarm and taking actions proactively to prevent rear-end collisions and accidents. Much previous research only focuses on detecting brake signals at night. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a robust hierarchical framework for detecting taillights of vehicles and estimating alert signals (turning and braking) in the daytime. The three-layer structure of the vision-based framework can obviously reduce both false positives and false negatives of taillight detection. Comparing to other existing work addressing nighttime detection, the proposed method is capable of recognizing taillight signals under different illumination circumstances. By carrying out contrast experiments with existing state-of-the-art methods, the results show the high detection rate of the framework in different weather conditions during the daytime.