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It happens that in large cities, drivers pass road signs due to distractions: billboards, light forks, or simply inattentive. On the country tracks the sign may be unnoticed due to fatigue, weather conditions or darkness. And then the car geniuses invented a system that allows the car literally to "see" and, more importantly, recognize the road sign, and warn the driver about it. It was named "Traffic Sign Recognition System" in Russian, the international name is "Traffic Sign Recognition", abbreviated TSR. The name may be changed, depending on the manufacturer.
Such systems now exist for almost every major automaker: BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and others.
The name of the system speaks for itself: it is designed to recognize, analyse road signs and report them to the driver. First of all, this is about speed-the system will warn the driver about speed limits on a particular section of the road. Some systems are also able to recognize the sign that prohibits overtaking, such as Opel Eye, and also ConnectedDrive from BMW.
Device and operating principle
The road sign recognition system includes a number of devices, such as a video camera, a control unit, and a screen. The video camera is designed to capture the image in front of the car at the level of the road signs: on the right and on the top. To do this, it is installed behind the rear-view mirror on the windscreen or in the side mirror. The image is sent to the unit of the electronic control unit. It is worth noting that this video camera can also be used for other active safety systems, such as pedestrian detection and lane help.
The electronic control unit is programmed to analyze the form of the road sign, the color, the inscription. It also analyses the current speed of the vehicle, compares it with the maximum permissible maximum, and then, if the actual speed exceeds the maximum allowed, informs the driver with the inscription on the screen and the sound support.
In this case, the image with a sign limiting the maximum speed is displayed on the screen and maintained throughout the corresponding section of the road. Typically, the screen is located in a speedometer, and on advanced models and concepts, the image is projected on the windscreen.
The vehicle's built-in vehicle recognition system is an expensive option. However, there is a more budgetary option-virtually all modern navigators are equipped with such a system. The main difference is that the system will learn about speed limits from the navigation charts.
