Road observation system for Robotic Communication Terminals supporting pedestrians

This paper describes the Robotic Communication Terminals (RCT), a mobility support system developed to assist elderly and disabled people who suffer from impaired mobility. The RCT system consists of three types of terminals and one server: an "environment-embedded terminal". a "user-carried mobile terminal", a "user-carrying mobile terminal", and a GIS server. The RCT is an integrated system that can cope with various problems of mobility, and provide suitable support to a wide variety of users according to their physical status, such as types, levels, combinations and histories of impairment to their eyes, ears, and legs. This paper provides an in-depth description of the "environment-embedded terminal". In this system a camera is located a few meters above ground on the sides of roads lit residential areas, railway stations, etc. Moving objects and obstacles are constantly monitored, and the data compiled are presented to users. We implemented the recognition part of this system using plug-in modules of the Windows DLL format, thus making it easy to change the algorithm depending on the time of day and the weather conditions. Moreover, it is shown by experiments in the real-world that this system can detect speeding vehicles and send the proper warning messages to alert users to the impending danger.