Optimizing the Detection Performance of Smart Camera Networks Through a Probabilistic Image-Based Model

Networks of smart cameras, equipped with on-board processing and communication infrastructure, are increasingly being deployed in a variety of different application fields, such as security and surveillance, traffic monitoring, industrial monitoring, and critical infrastructure protection. The task(s) that a network of smart cameras executes in these applications, e.g., activity monitoring and object identification, can be severely degraded due to errors in the detection module. However, in most cases, higher level tasks and decision making processes in smart camera networks (SCNs) assume ideal detection capabilities for the cameras, which is often not the case due to the probabilistic nature of the detection process, especially for low-cost cameras with limited capabilities. Realizing that it is necessary to introduce robustness in the decision process, this paper presents results toward uncertainty-aware SCNs. Specifically, we introduce a flexible uncertainty model that can be used to characterize the detection behavior in a camera network. We also show how to utilize the model to formulate detection-aware optimization algorithms that can be used to reconfigure the network in order to improve the overall detection efficiency and thus increase the effective number of detected targets. We evaluate our proposed model and algorithms using a network of Raspberry-Pi-based smart cameras that reconfigure in order to improve the detection performance based on the position of targets in the area. The experimental results in the laboratory as well as in a human monitoring application and extensive simulation results indicate that the proposed solutions are able to improve the robustness and reliability of SCNs.