Moving vehicle detection, tracking and traffic parameter estimation from a satellite video: a perspective on a smarter city

Abstract

Satellite remote sensing is undergoing a revolution in terms of sensors and temporal coverage. The possibility of acquiring earth’s surface video from space provides an opportunity to investigate broader applications of remote sensing. High-resolution spaceborne videos can become a vital factor in earth observation. Temporally continuous tracking of moving objects, i.e. vehicles, vessels, or even military equipment on Earth’s surface demands high spatial resolution satellite videos. Detecting moving vehicles in the urban areas from space video can lead governments to a new era of traffic monitoring. Satellite videos will find many applications in the field of traffic monitoring. In this article, first, moving vehicles are detected using background subtraction with 94.7% accuracy. Afterwards, vehicles’ trajectories, average velocities, dynamic velocities, and space-time diagram are estimated and trajectories are classified based on velocities. Finally, the total frame traffic density is computed.