Voice-Assisted Real-Time Traffic Sign Recognition System Using Convolutional Neural Network

Traffic signs are important in communicating information to drivers. Thus, comprehension of traffic signs is essential for road safety and ignorance may result in road accidents. Traffic sign detection has been a research spotlight over the past few decades. Real-time and accurate detections are the preliminaries of robust traffic sign detection system which is yet to be achieved. This study presents a voice-assisted real-time traffic sign recognition system which is capable of assisting drivers. This system functions under two subsystems. Initially, the detection and recognition of the traffic signs are carried out using a trained Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). After recognizing the specific traffic sign, it is narrated to the driver as a voice message using a text-to-speech engine. An efficient CNN model for a benchmark dataset is developed for real-time detection and recognition using Deep Learning techniques. The advantage of this system is that even if the driver misses a traffic sign, or does not look at the traffic sign, or is unable to comprehend the sign, the system detects it and narrates it to the driver. A system of this type is also important in the development of autonomous vehicles.