Smart Cameras

As the prices of cameras and computing elements continue to fall, it has become increasingly attractive to consider the deployment of smart camera networks. Such camera networks could be used to support a wide variety of applications including environmental modeling, 3D model construction and surveillance.

One critical problem that must be addressed before such systems can be realized is the issue of localization. That is, in order to take full advantage of the images gathered from multiple vantage points it is helpful to know how the cameras in the scene are positioned and oriented with respect to each other.

We have developed a novel deployment scheme where each of the smart cameras is equipped with a co-located controllable light source which it can use to signal other smart cameras in the vicinity. By analyzing the images that it acquires over time, each smart camera is able to locate and identify other nodes in the scene. This arrangement makes it possible to directly determine the epipolar geometry of the camera system from image measurements and, hence, provides a means for recovering the relative positions and orientations of the smart camera nodes.

The localization technology can serve as a basic capability on which higher level applications can be built. The method could be used to automatically survey the locations of sensors of interest, to implement distributed surveillance systems or to analyze the structure of a scene based on the images obtained from multiple registered vantage points.

Related Publications

  • Self Localizing Smart Camera Networks
    B. Shirmohammadi and C. J. Taylor
    ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks, Vol: 8, No: 2, Pgs: 11:1-11:24, March 2012
    [ pdf ] [ bib ]
  • Distributed Target Tracking using Self Localizing Smart Camera Networks
    B. Shirmohammadi and C. J. Taylor
    ACM International Conference on Distributed Smart Cameras, Pgs: 16-24, Sept 2010
    [ pdf ] [ bib ]
  • Towards Robotic Self-reassembly After Explosion
    M. Yim and B. shirmohammadi and S. Jimmy and M. Park and M. Dugan and C. J. Taylor
    IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Pgs: 2767-2772, October 2007
    [ pdf ] [ bib ]
  • Using Smart Cameras to Localize Self-Assembling Modular Robots
    B. Shirmohammadi and C. J. Taylor and M. Yim and J. Sastra and M. Park and M. Dugan
    First ACM/IEEE International Conference on Distributed Smart Camera, Pgs: 76-80, Sept 2007
    [ pdf ] [ bib ]
  • Self Localizing Smart Camera Networks and Their Applications to 3D Modeling
    C. J. Taylor and B. Shirmohammadi
    ACM SenSys/First Workshop on Distributed Smart Cameras (DSC 06), October 2006
    [ pdf ] [ bib ]