Autonomous Multicamera Tracking on Embedded Smart Cameras

There is currently a strong trend towards the deployment of advanced computer vision methods on embedded systems. This deployment is very challenging since embedded platforms often provide limited resources such as computing performance, memory, and power. In this paper we present a multicamera tracking method on distributed, embedded smart cameras. Smart cameras combine video sensing, processing, and communication on a single embedded device which is equipped with a multiprocessor computation and communication infrastructure. Our multicamera tracking approach focuses on a fully decentralized handover procedure between adjacent cameras. The basic idea is to initiate a single tracking instance in the multicamera system for each object of interest. The tracker follows the supervised object over the camera network, migrating to the camera which observes the object. Thus, no central coordination is required resulting in an autonomous and scalable tracking approach. We have fully implemented this novel multicamera tracking approach on our embedded smart cameras. Tracking is achieved by the well-known CamShift algorithm; the handover procedure is realized using a mobile agent system available on the smart camera network. Our approach has been successfully evaluated on tracking persons at our campus

Embedded middleware for smart camera networks and sensor fusion

Abstract Smart cameras are an interesting research field that has evolved over the last decade. In this chapter we focus on the integration of multiple, potentially heterogeneous, smart cameras into a distributed system for computer vision and sensor fusion. An important aspect for every distributed system is the system-level software, also called middleware. Hence, we discuss the requirements on middleware for distributed smart cameras and the services such a middleware has to provide. In our opinion a middleware following the agent-oriented paradigm allows to build flexible and self-organizing applications that encourage a modular design