Patent ID: 8559673

Claim:
A method of determining three-dimensional locations of traffic signals, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of images, each image of the plurality of images is associated with geographic location and orientation information; selecting, by a computer, one or more images of the plurality of images which are associated with the geographic locations proximate to traffic intersections; for each selected image, identifying by the computer brightly-colored red, yellow, and green objects within the selected image; generating a set of traffic signal labels based on the identified brightly-colored red, yellow and green objects; identifying associated labels within two or more of the selected images, based on the geographic location and orientation information of the two or more selected images; filtering the set of traffic signal labels to remove labels for brightly-colored red, yellow, or green objects that correspond to objects other than a traffic signal light; determining the three-dimensional locations of traffic signals based on (1) the identified associated labels, (2) the filtered set of traffic signal labels, and (3) the geographic location and orientation information of the two or more selected images; storing the three-dimensional locations of the traffic signals in memory accessible by the computer; and using the three-dimensional locations of the traffic signal to assist an autonomous vehicle.