Towards large-scale pervasive smart camera networks

Pervasive or ubiquitous computing refers to sensors and other electronic devices which are invisibly embedded into our everyday life environment. Examples use wireless sensor networks to provide meaningful information humans without the need for their interaction. The main focus is to make the environment more intelligent without disturbing the humans. Visual sensor networks (VSNs) are also a type of ubiquitous networks, since cameras are omnipresent by being embedded into everyday life objects such as smartphones. Cameras are becoming smaller and cheaper nowadays, enabling an invisible integration into our everyday life environment. The size the sensors is of important interest in order to enable dense sensor coverage without being disturbing. Small cameras such as embedded cameras, have various resource constraints including processing power, memory size or sensor resolution. Thus, building an invisible, pervasive VSN brings up certain challenges.