Recognition of Traffic Signs and Korean Texts on Traffic Signs Using Japanese Puzzle

This paper embodies a recognition system that recognizes the traffic signs and the Korean characters on the traffic signs through reverse application of a Japanese puzzle. The Japanese puzzle used in this system reveals the shape of the intended object when marked onto the mesh grids according to the (x,y) coordinate information provided by the puzzle creator. When the puzzle described above is applied to the color and the shape of the traffic sign after the separating the traffic sign image from the inputted image, the system outputs the traffic sign and its contents as text if the image is recognized as a traffic sign. With the black-and-white image processing and unneeded penciling procedure, the proposed system outperformed the existing systems at a faster processing speed and higher recognition rate.