Visual tracking using sensor networks

New trends in Wireless Sensor Networks envisage deployments for distributed applications requiring real-time support at the kernel level and Quality of Service at the network level. In this domain, at the design stage, particular attention must be devoted to individual data packets as those entities carrying unique (not redundant) information. The performances of the deployed system (hereby felt as a black box) must be tracked against the reliability and timeliness offered in message delivery. A Visual Tracking case study is discussed throughout this paper with the support of a simulation package modelling real-time scheduling policies at the device node kernels and bandwidth allocation techniques for network reliable communications as standardized in the IEEE 802.15.4 suite of protocols. A set of results is carried out estimating the performances of the Visual Tracking system in two contexts (those of a monitored junction in an airport taxiway and in a parking area) very different for criticality and average volume of network traffic.