Road sign recognition

myslius · Feb 26, 2013

Hi, I'm writing software for road sign recognition in digital images. I need to take a lot of photos with road sings. Any ideas how to do that? I was thinking about mounting a camera inside a car, and to drive around the city with auto shooting feature. Photos should be around 5 Mpx, with an average quality without blur, so that road signs can be easily identified.
Some of my calculations: let's say an average speed of the car is 60 km/h or 40 mph or 16 meters/second. Camera should be able to take pictures about every 10 meters or 1.6 pictures per second. 2 hours of capturing would be great. Around 10000 pictures.
How long will the battery last? I think there is a battery problem with my idea, many cameras can take only around 500 photos (highest quality, i suppose). What if I charge a camera from the car?
What equipment do you recommend? Any tips and ideas are highly appreciated, Thanks.

cwcaesar · Feb 26, 2013

Get a spare battery. Have someone sit in the passenger seat to take the photos of the signs needed.

Awiserbud · Feb 26, 2013

why do you need to take photos of the signs, if you are writing software to recognise them just grab them from the internet, i'm sure there must be a royalty free collection somewhere, but even if you have to pay for them surely it would be cheaper than driving out to take the shots yourself.

KmH · Feb 26, 2013

Many of the lower cost ($500 new), entry-level cameras have shutter mechanisms that are only rated for 50,000 actuations.
$1000 - $2000 DSLRs have shutter mechanisms rated at 100,000 to 150,000 actuations.

Shutters are replaceable, for $250 to $300 per replacement.