Potential accuracy of traffic signs' positions extracted from google street view

This work demonstrates the potential use of Google Street View (GSV) in engineering measurements. An investigation was conducted to assess the geopositioning accuracy of traffic signs extracted from GSV. A direct linear transformation (DLT) model is used to establish the relationship between the GSV image coordinate system and the ground coordinate system with the aid of ground control points (GCPs). The ground coordinates of the traffic sign can be retrieved by using the solved DLT coefficients. It is found that the root-mean-square (RMS) error of the extracted traffic sign's location is less than 1 m in general. By increasing the number of GSV images and GCPs, the RMS error can be further reduced to 0.5 m or less. This preliminary study demonstrates a viable solution to extract the location of traffic signs from GSV.