Design of networked visual monitoring systems

Reports on the design and implementation of a networked visual monitoring system for surveillance. Instead of the usual periodic monitoring, the system has an auto-tracking feature which captures the important characteristics of intruders. We integrate two schemes, namely, image segmentation and histogram comparison, to accomplish the auto-tracking feature. The developed tracking scheme is able to segment and track moving objects from the background in real time. The tracked object information is used to guide the motion of the tracking camera to track the intruders and then to take a series of photographs. In multiple object tracking, we have developed a multiple objects tracking scheme, based on object color histogram comparison, to overcome object occlusion and disocclusion issues. To achieve efficient transmission and storage, the captured video is compressed in H.263 format. Query based on time as well as events are provided. Users can access the system from web browsers to view the monitoring site or manipulate the tracking camera on the Internet. These features are of importance and value to surveillance.