This paper presents a full-scale solution to the detection of the traffic data using laser device. Range images, gathered by a particular laser camera, are used in the multi-threshold segmentation. The multi-threshold segmentation is based on the height of the moving objects. In order to get the precise height of the moving objects, mapping of the original terrain is performed on the first step. On each layer, the clustering algorithm called iteration-self organizing data analysis techniques algorithm (ISODATA) is conducted afterwards. Kalman filtering technique is applied to recognize and track the moving objects. Extensive experiments show that these algorithms are effective in object recognition and tracking, as well as robust in the applications. © Shanghai Jiaotong University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011.