This publication addresses distributed embedded smart cameras –cameras that perform on board analysis and collaborate with other cameras. This book provides the material required to better understand the architectural design challenges of embedded smart camera systems, the hardware/software ecosystem, the design approach for and applications of distributed smart cameras together with the state-of-the-art algorithms. The authors concentrate on the architecture, hardware/software design, realization of smart camera networks from applications to architectures, in particular in the embedded and mobile domains.

- The first book, by the leading experts, on this rapidly developing field with applications to security, smart homes, multimedia, and environmental monitoring - Comprehensive coverage of fundamentals, algorithms, design methodologies, system implementation issues, architectures, and applications - Presents in detail the latest developments in multi-camera calibration, active and heterogeneous camera networks, multi-camera object and event detection, tracking, coding, smart camera architecture and middleware This book is the definitive reference in multi-camera networks. It gives clear guidance on the conceptual and implementation issues involved in the design and operation of multi-camera networks, as well as presenting the state-of-the-art in hardware, algorithms and system development. The book is broad in scope, covering smart camera architectures, embedded processing, sensor fusion and middleware, calibration and topology, network-based detection and tracking, and applications in distributed and collaborative methods in camera networks. This book will be an ideal reference for university researchers, R&D engineers, computer engineers, and graduate students working in signal and video processing, computer vision, and sensor networks. Hamid Aghajan is a Professor of Electrical Engineering (consulting) at Stanford University. His research is on multi-camera networks for smart environments with application to smart homes, assisted living and well being, meeting rooms, and avatar-based communication and social interactions. He is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, and was general chair of ACM/IEEE ICDSC 2008. Andrea Cavallaro is Reader (Associate Professor) at Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL). His research is on target tracking and audiovisual content analysis for advanced surveillance and multi-sensor systems. He serves as Associate Editor of the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine and the IEEE Trans. on Multimedia, and has been general chair of IEEE AVSS 2007, ACM/IEEE ICDSC 2009 and BMVC 2009. - The first book, by the leading experts, on this rapidly developing field with applications to security, smart homes, multimedia, and environmental monitoring - Comprehensive coverage of fundamentals, algorithms, design methodologies, system implementation issues, architectures, and applications - Presents in detail the latest developments in multi-camera calibration, active and heterogeneous camera networks, multi-camera object and event detection, tracking, coding, smart camera architecture and middleware

This book describes the algorithms and computer architectures used to create and analyze photographs in modern digital cameras. It also puts the capabilities of digital cameras into context for applications in art, entertainment, and video analysis. The author discusses the entire range of topics relevant to digital camera design, including image processing, computer vision, image sensors, system-on-chip, and optics, while clearly describing the interactions between design decisions at these different levels of abstraction. Readers will benefit from this comprehensive view of digital camera design, describing the range of algorithms used to compose, enhance, and analyze images, as well as the characteristics of optics, image sensors, and computing platforms that determine the physical limits of image capture and computing. The content is designed to be used by algorithm designers and does not require an extensive background in optics or electronics.

The book comprehensively covers almost all aspects of stereo vision. In addition reader can find topics from defining knowledge gaps to the state of the art algorithms as well as current application trends of stereo vision to the development of intelligent hardware modules and smart cameras. It would not be an exaggeration if this book is considered to be one of the most comprehensive books published in reference to the current research in the field of stereo vision. Research topics covered in this book makes it equally essential and important for students and early career researchers as well as senior academics linked with computer vision.

In a world supported by Ambient Intelligence (AmI), various devices embedded in the environment collectively use the distributed information and the intelligence inherent in this interconnected environment. A range of information from sensing and reas- ing technologies is used by distributed devices in the environment. The cooperation between natural user interfaces and sensor interfaces covers all of a person’s s- roundings, resulting in a device environment that behaves intelligently; the term “Ambient Intelligence” has been coined to describe it. In this way, the environment is able to recognize the persons in it, to identify their individual needs, to learn from their behavior, and to act and react in their interest. Since this vision is influenced by a lot of different concepts in information proce- ing and combines multi-disciplinary fields in electrical engineering, computer science, industrial design, user interfaces, and cognitive sciences, considerable research is needed to provide new models of technological innovation within a multi-dimensional society. Thus the AmI vision relies on the large-scale integration of electronics into the environment, enabling the actors, i.e., people and objects, to interact with their surrounding in a seamless, trustworthy, and natural manner.

The third edition of this hands-on textbook pursues the focus on the principles of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), their applications, their protocols and standards, and their analysis and test tools; a meticulous care has been accorded to the definitions and terminology. To make WSNs felt and seen, the adopted technologies as well as their manufacturers are presented in detail. In introductory computer networking books, chapters sequencing follows the bottom up or top down architecture of the seven layers protocol. This book is some more steps after, both horizontally and vertically, the view and understanding are getting clearer, chapters ordering is based on topics significance to the elaboration of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) concepts and issues. This book is intended for a wide audience, it is meant to be help and motivate, for both the senior undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers, and practitioners; concepts and WSNs related applications are laid out, research and practical issues are backed by appropriate literature, and new trends are put under focus. For senior undergraduate students, it familiarizes with conceptual foundations, applications and practical projects implementations. For graduate students and researchers, energy-efficient routing protocols, transport layer protocols and cross-layering protocols approach are presented. Testbeds and simulators provide a must follow emphasis on the analysis methods and tools for WSNs. For practitioners, besides applications and deployment, the manufacturers and components of WSNs at several platforms and testbeds are fully explored.

Our homes anticipate when we want to wake up. Our computers predict what music we want to buy. Our cars adapt to the way we drive. In today’s world, even washing machines, rice cookers and toys have the capability of autonomous decision-making. As we grow accustomed to computing power embedded in our surroundings, it becomes clear that these ‘smart environments’, with a number of devices controlled by a coordinating system capable of ‘ambient intelligence’, will play an ever larger role in our lives. This handbook provides readers with comprehensive, up-to-date coverage in what is a key technological field. . Systematically dealing with each aspect of ambient intelligence and smart environments, the text covers everything, from visual information capture and human/computer interaction to multi-agent systems, network use of sensor data, and building more rationality into artificial systems. The book also details a wide range of applications, examines case studies of recent major projects from around the world, and analyzes both the likely impact of the technology on our lives, and its ethical implications. With a wide variety of separate disciplines all conducting research relevant to this field, this handbook encourages collaboration between disparate researchers by setting out the fundamental concepts from each area that are relevant to ambient intelligence and smart environments, providing a fertile soil in which ground-breaking new work candevelop.