Multi-agent Based Distributed Video Surveillance System over IP

In this paper, we present an automated and distributed real-time video surveillance architecture used to develop intelligent video surveillance system. It has two features: (1) each surveillance terminal is designed as an agent, which is responsible for raw information processing from its according sensors, and it ensures that all raw information is processed in the front-end of the system and only processing results are transmitted through IP network. Furthermore, an automatic video storage, video recording and data transmission mechanism based on surveillance events is applied in the system to realize data transmission on demand. All these can avoid transmitting lots of non-essential data and sharply reduce network load to meet the requirement of real-time surveillance. (2) an active blackboard is used as the data exchange center among information processing units and device control units, which ensures that all control information can be transmitted and exchanged automatically and actively, and it also ensures that the system can give quick response to a surveillance event and avoid information loss. Our video surveillance system will show its great satisfactory to various security-monitoring fields.