Highway traffic information extraction from Skycam MPEG video

Skycams are video cameras that are mounted at high altitudes to provide images of large areas. We present an algorithm that quickly extracts highway traffic information, such as average vehicle speed and density, directly from MPEG compressed Skycam video. Our experiments show that 80-90% of estimation accuracy can be achieved for both vehicle speed and density. The algorithm is stable and effective for Skycam, which the traditional approaches cannot handle due to the low resolution. Because a Skycam can cover a much longer stretch of road than a close-view camera that is used in the current traffic monitoring system, great savings can be expected by widely deploying a Skycam based traffic monitoring system.