TRAFFIC SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM

A machine vision system for detecting and recognizing objects. The system includes a camera which forms three different images of the object using different portions of the electromagnetic spectrum and uses these different images depending on the time of day and weather conditions. The machine vision system also enables an operator to select zones within the camera's field of view than may be of any size or shape. The machine vision system only detects objects in the specified zones. The vision system provides signals to a traffic light controller to provide vehicle or object presence indications for traffic signal sequencing purposes. The vision system can simply detect an object or optionally can pattern match for specific objects.