An in-vehicle tracking method using vehicular ad-hoc networks with a vision-based system

Vehicle tracking is an important issue in intelligent vehicle automation systems since it can be used to increase safety, convenience and efficiency in driving. Many of the methods for vehicle tracking use a vision-based system to recognize the neighboring vehicles and provide a real time map of nearby vehicles. In other methods, wireless communication between vehicles has been used to locate the vehicles within range and provide tracking information for driving assistance applications. In this paper we present a combination of both a vision-based system and a wireless based system to provide more accurate real-time information about neighboring vehicles. We assume that some of the vehicles are equipped with GPS receivers, a Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) transceiver and one or more cameras mounted on the vehicle. This tracking method has been implemented and evaluated in urban, highway and intersection scenarios under different adoption rates. The results show that a combined approach can be more effective.