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Estimating ambient visibility in the presence of fog: a deep convolutional neural network approach

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Abstract

Next-generation intelligent transportation systems are based on the acquisition of ambient data that influence traffic flow and safety. Among these, is the ambient visibility range whose estimation, in the presence of fog, is extremely useful for next-generation intelligent transportation systems. However, existing camera-based approaches are based on “engineered features” extraction methods that use computer algorithms and procedures from the image processing field. In this contribution, a novel approach to estimate visibility range under foggy weather conditions is proposed which is based on “learned features” instead. More precisely, we use AlexNet deep convolutional neural network (DCNN), trained with raw image data, for feature extraction and a support vector machine (SVM) for visibility range estimation. Our quantitative analysis showed that the proposed approach is very promising in estimating the visibility range with very good accuracy. The proposed solution can pave the way towards intelligent driveway assistance systems to enhance awareness of driving weather conditions and hence mitigate the safety risks emanating from fog-induced low visibility conditions.

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Funding

This research was financially supported by Zayed University Cluster Research Grant No. R17075.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Technological Innovation, Zayed University, Dubai, UAE

    Fatma Outay

  2. Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Bilal Taha

  3. ESPRIT School of Engineering, Tunis, Tunisia

    Hazar Chaabani & Faouzi Kamoun

  4. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE

    Naoufel Werghi

  5. Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium

    Ansar -Ul-Haque Yasar

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  1. Fatma Outay
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  2. Bilal Taha
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  3. Hazar Chaabani
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  6. Ansar -Ul-Haque Yasar
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Correspondence to Faouzi Kamoun.

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Outay, F., Taha, B., Chaabani, H. et al. Estimating ambient visibility in the presence of fog: a deep convolutional neural network approach. Pers Ubiquit Comput 25, 51–62 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-019-01334-w

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