Communications of the ACM
Wireless Camera Network Offers New Possibilities For Security Systems
A new device developed by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, could serve as the prototype for a solar-powered wireless network of smart cameras.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) researchers have developed the Solar Wi-Fi Energy Efficient Tracking camera (SWEETcam) system, a prototype device for a solar-powered wireless network of smart cameras.
"The on-board components are getting so much smaller and more computationally powerful, it's possible for a compact camera device to have a lot of data processing and other capabilities," says UCSC graduate student Kevin Abas.
Each camera node is powered by a solar panel and a rechargeable battery, and the system can analyze images as they are captured using computer vision software. "If it gets activated by something that is not of interest, the computer vision software can identify that and put the system back into sleep mode so it's not recording things like vegetation moving in the wind, or raccoons and deer," Abas notes.
He says the system was designed to monitor public spaces, remote areas, and any place where traditional wired security systems are impractical.
SWEETcam currently only has limited image-analysis capabilities. "For now, we are not doing any sophisticated visual processing, just using standard open source libraries," says UCSC professor Katia Obraczka. "We're mostly interested in the networking and systems engineering aspect, but the computer vision part is certainly fascinating."
From UC Santa Cruz
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2014 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found