Utility-Based Camera Assignment in a Video Network: A Game Theoretic Framework

In this paper, an approach for camera assignment and handoff in a video network based on a set of user-supplied criteria is proposed. The approach is based on game theory, where bargaining mechanisms are considered for collaborations as well as for resolving conflicts among the available cameras. Camera utilities and person utilities are computed based on a set of user-supplied criteria, which are used in the process of developing the bargaining mechanisms. Different criteria and their combination are compared with each other to understand their effect on camera assignment. Experiments for multicamera multiperson cases are provided to corroborate the proposed approach. Intuitive evaluation measures are used to evaluate the performance of the system in real-world scenarios. The proposed approach is also compared with two recent approaches based on different principles. The experimental results show that the proposed approach is computationally more efficient, more robust and more flexible in dealing with the user-supplied criteria.