This thesis presents dynamic reconfiguration methods for Active Camera Networks. Active Camera Networks consist of autonomous vehicles - each one equipped with a visual sensor - communicating wirelessly with each other in order to perform surveillance tasks in a collaborative way. Recent advances in the area of robotics have led to the development of autonomous vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles that can be used to explore operational environments such as urban areas or unknown building structures. This thesis is devoted to the development of dynamic reconfiguration methods, which allow for distributed control of collaborating cameras in dynamic environments. Thus, they act self-organizing and with the least a priori information in terms of their environment. The focus is on the wide-area target acquisition of moving targets in a surveillance area. It addresses application scenarios where events unfold over a large geographic area and close-up views have to be acquired for biometric tasks such as face detection. The main problem is to coordinate numerous cameras in order to reach a system behavior that only one capture of each target is acquired.

Human Recognition in Unconstrained Environments provides a unique picture of the complete ‘in-the-wild’ biometric recognition processing chain; from data acquisition through to detection, segmentation, encoding, and matching reactions against security incidents. Coverage includes: Data hardware architecture fundamentals Background subtraction of humans in outdoor scenes Camera synchronization Biometric traits: Real-time detection and data segmentation Biometric traits: Feature encoding / matching Fusion at different levels Reaction against security incidents Ethical issues in non-cooperative biometric recognition in public spaces With this book readers will learn how to: Use computer vision, pattern recognition and machine learning methods for biometric recognition in real-world, real-time settings, especially those related to forensics and security Choose the most suited biometric traits and recognition methods for uncontrolled settings Evaluate the performance of a biometric system on real world data Presents a complete picture of the biometric recognition processing chain, ranging from data acquisition to the reaction procedures against security incidents Provides specific requirements and issues behind each typical phase of the development of a robust biometric recognition system Includes a contextualization of the ethical/privacy issues behind the development of a covert recognition system which can be used for forensics and security activities

This book explores how neural networks can be designed to analyze sensory data in a way that mimics natural systems. It introduces readers to the cellular neural network (CNN) and formulates it to match the behavior of the Wilson–Cowan model. In turn, two properties that are vital in nature are added to the CNN to help it more accurately deliver mimetic behavior: randomness of connection, and the presence of different dynamics (excitatory and inhibitory) within the same network. It uses an ID matrix to determine the location of excitatory and inhibitory neurons, and to reconfigure the network to optimize its topology. The book demonstrates that reconfiguring a single-layer CNN is an easier and more flexible solution than the procedure required in a multilayer CNN, in which excitatory and inhibitory neurons are separate, and that the key CNN criteria of a spatially invariant template and local coupling are fulfilled. In closing, the application of the authors’ neuron population model as a feature extractor is exemplified using odor and electroencephalogram classification.

Technological Developments in Education and Automation includes set of rigorously reviewed world-class manuscripts dealing with the increasing role of technology in daily lives including education and industrial automation Technological Developments in Education and Automation contains papers presented at the International Conference on Industrial Electronics, Technology & Automation and the International Conference on Engineering Education, Instructional Technology, Assessment, and E-learning which were part of the International Joint Conferences on Computer, Information and Systems Sciences and Engineering

- 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

Sensor Fusion - Foundation and Applications comprehensively covers the foundation and applications of sensor fusion. This book provides some novel ideas, theories, and solutions related to the research areas in the field of sensor fusion. The book explores some of the latest practices and research works in the area of sensor fusion. The book contains chapters with different methods of sensor fusion for different engineering as well as non-engineering applications. Advanced applications of sensor fusion in the areas of mobile robots, automatic vehicles, airborne threats, agriculture, medical field and intrusion detection are covered in this book. Sufficient evidences and analyses have been provided in the chapter to show the effectiveness of sensor fusion in various applications. This book would serve as an invaluable reference for professionals involved in various applications of sensor fusion.