Embedded Middleware on Distributed Smart Cameras

Two trends emerge in recent image processing research: distributed computing and embedded processing. Both trends are exemplified in smart cameras which combine image sensing, image processing and communication on a single embedded device. Networks of distributed smart cameras help to overcome some hard problems that are inherent in single-camera systems. Designing, implementing and deploying image processing applications for cooperating distributed cameras is much more complex than for single-camera systems. In this paper, we focus on software services required for distributed embedded image processing on a network of smart cameras. We identify important middleware services and present our lightweight middleware implemented on our distributed SmartCams. A multi-camera tracking application demonstrates the benefits of our approach.