Moving Shadow Detection and Removal for Traffic Sequences

Segmentation of moving objects in a video sequence is a basic task for application of computer vision.However,shadows extracted along with the objects can result in large errors in object localization and recognition.In this paper,we propose a method of moving shadow detection based on edge information,which can effectively detect the cast shadow of a moving vehicle in a traffic scene.Having confirmed shadows existing in a figure,we execute the shadow removal algorithm proposed in this paper to segment the shadow from the foreground.The shadow eliminating algorithm removes the boundary of the cast shadow and preserves object edges firstly;secondly,it reconstructs coarse object shapes based on the edge information of objects;and finally,it extracts the cast shadow by subtracting the moving object from the change detection mask and performs further processing.The proposed method has been further tested on images taken under different shadow orientations,vehicle colors and vehicle sizes,and the results have revealed that shadows can be successfully eliminated and thus good video segmentation can be obtained.