1. A method for detecting and recognizing traffic signs using images captured by a digital color and night vision camera, the said method characterized in being illumination invariant comprising: transforming, by a processor, RGB image into HSV color model and subsequently extracting desired color components by using color quantization; filtering, by the processor, noise components in the HSV color model in order to obtain a filtered image, wherein the filtered image is obtained by, computing a centroid of each Region of Interest (ROI) in the HSV color model, calculating a left distance indicating a distance from the centroid to a plurality of left side elements present in the HSV color model, calculating a right distance indicating a distance from the centroid to a plurality of right side elements present in the HSV color model, filtering the noise components based on the left distance, the right distance, a count of the plurality of left side elements, and a count of the plurality of right side elements; detecting, by the processor, edges of objects in the filtered image and subsequently detecting distinct objects in the filtered image; classifying, by the processor, shapes of traffic signs based on shape of the distinct objects; and recognizing, by the processor, the shapes of the traffic signs by template matching.