Persistent Observation of Dynamic Scenes in an Active Camera Network

This chapter deals with the problem of persistent observation of a wide area scene through decentralized, cooperative control of an active camera network. We focus on applications where events unfold over a large geographic area and need to be analyzed by multiple cameras. There is no central unit accumulating and analyzing all the data. The overall goal is to observe all objects (i.e., targets) in the region of deployment of the cameras, while selectively focusing at a high resolution on some particular target features based on application requirements. Efficient usage of resources in such a scenario requires that the cameras be active. However, this control cannot be based on separate analysis of the sensed video in each camera. They must act collaboratively to be able to acquire multiple targets at different resolutions. Our research focuses on developing accurate and efficient target acquisition and camera control algorithms in such scenarios using game theory. We show real-life experimental results of the approach.