Real-time video surveillance system for piggery based on H.264 and embedded system

A real-time video surveillance system for piggery was designed to overcome the disadvantages of traditional observation methods for behavior of pigs. In this system, embedded system technology, H.264 video encoding technology and network communication technology were combined for real-time monitoring the behavior of pigs. According to directional centre-biased motion vector distribution and the characteristic that the motion in the horizontal direction is more impetuous than vertical direction in the surveillance video for piggery, thin diamond search (TDS) algorithm was proposed in this paper. The algorithm is based on thin diamond search pattern, and has the feature of fast speed while maintaining high precision of diamond search algorithm. The experimental results showed that the computation complexity and coding time of video coding are reduced in the TDS algorithm, so that the real-time performance of the surveillance video was improved significantly. This study provides a convenient way and low-cost method for remote monitoring of animal behavior. Therefore, the system has a wide application prospect in intelligent precision breeding industry.