A CMOS sensor chip was used, together with an Arduino microcontroller, to create and verify a low-power low-cost optical motion detector for use in traffic detection under dark and daylight conditions. The chip can sense object features with very high dynamic range. On-chip near sensor image processing was used to reduce the data to be transferred to a host computer. A method using local extrema point detection was used to estimate motion through time-to-impact (TTI). Sensor data from the headlights of an approaching/passing car were used to extract TTI values similar to estimations from distance and speed of the object. The method can be used for detection of approaching objects to switch on streetlights (dark conditions) or sensors for traffic lights instead of magnetic sensors in the streets or conventional cameras (dark and daylight conditions). A sensor with a microcontroller operating at low clock frequency will consume less than 30 mW in this application.