Camera Planning and Fusion in a Heterogeneous Camera Network: Theory and Practice

Wide-area camera networks are becoming more and more common. They have wide-range of commercial and military applications from video surveillance to smart home and from traffic monitoring to anti-terrorism. The design of such a camera network is a challenging problem due to the complexity of the environment, self and mutual occlusion of moving objects, diverse sensor properties and a myriad of performance metrics for different applications. In this boook, we consider two such challenges: camera planning and camera fusion. Camera planning is to determine the optimal number and placement of cameras for a target cost function. Camera fusion describes the task of combining images collected by heterogenous cameras in the network to extract information pertinent to a target application. The original research presented in this book is valuable for researchers in sensor network, video surveillance, computer vision and augmented reality. The introduction and tutorial part of this book are also beneficial for general audience interested in sensor network and imaging technology.