LED Flicker & Machine Vision Survey
Take Our Survey!
You have arrived at the information page for the SAE ITC VRU Safety Consortium™ (VRUSC) survey about Machine Vision and LED Flicker. Thank you for taking the time to click the link or scan the QR code that brought you here.
The survey can be taken anonymously, or you have the option to share contact information.
Since the topic of Machine Vision and LED Flicker may be new to some people, the purpose of this page is to provide basic overview information before taking the survey.
Thank you in advance for completing this survey. For questions or any issues, please contact lisa.spellman@sae-itc.org
About LED Flicker and Why it Matters for Machine Vision
Vehicles of all types are increasingly using machine vision to sense and understand the external environment around the vehicle. Vehicular machine vision is achieved through a combination of cameras, sensors, and machine learning to detect and characterize core environmental elements, including message boards, traffic lights, and regulatory signs (e.g., speed limit, stop signs). Traffic technology lighting has also been evolving from halogen to LED-based lighting.
Flicker that is not perceptible to the human eye may be perceptible to machine vision sensors such as cameras. When vehicle-based machine vision encounter LEDs, there can be issues with the ability of the machine vision to accurately detect and interpret the objects using or lit by LED lighting. Cameras can sample images of the road environment multiple times per second. Sometimes, the resulting images of LED signs and signals appear to be entirely, partially blank, or blurred/discolored, because the camera samples some or all of the LEDs during the “OFF” time when they are flickering. If this happens the driver assistance system might misinterpret a signal or sign as being anomalous, off or not present when in fact it is present and on, resulting in incorrect information and a potential safety issue.
In order to better understand this problem and how common it might be, we are asking respondents to this survey to provide information about the LED traffic control devices they work with to assess:
- The scope of general awareness of LED Flicker and Machine Vision Detection
- Organizations that have experienced issues of concern with LED flicker
- To identify individuals that might wish to further participate in additional surveys or working groups.
To see examples of LED flicker, please click the links below
The links below are from two very helpful webinars hosted by the American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA)
Short overview about LED flicker
Brief overview about flicker and traffic lights
Short example of 3 use cases & autonomous vehicles
The three clips above were taken from two longer webinars
Links below
ATSSA Safety Issues with Display Boards & Traffic Control Devices
ATSSA LED Flicker Rates Stakeholder Meeting
*A special thank you to the terrific team at the American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA) and Brian Deegan, Lecturer and Researcher at NUI Galway and chair of the IEEE 2020 LED Flicker Measurement Working Group for their assistance in this activity.
We facilitate the introduction of technology and standards for bicycles, ebikes, scooters, automakers, commercial vehicle manufacturers, transportation, consumer electronic companies (e.g., cell phones, telecommunications), and Infrastructure Owners/Operators and providers to improve VRU safety.
Contact Us
Vulnerable Road Users Safety Consortium
400 Commonwealth Drive
Warrendale, PA 15096
+1 (724) 316-3302
vrusc@sae-itc.org
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