The network surveillance system, Panoptes (meaning multi-eyed monster in Greek mythology), comprising an array of distributed video cameras provides multi-directional surveillance view through interactive display. The objective is to provide 3D wide view with object tracking and crystal clear views, overcoming the limitation of the restricted field of view from a single camera sensor and making the system more robust to all sorts of possible occlusions. The research challenges include developing 3D model, multiple video integration, alignment and registration, and real time multi-stream video compression for low power devices through a novel technique called active compression (as the compression algorithm adjusts itself to optimize the visual quality and battery consumption). The system could be used for stereo cameras mounted over the field of interest, such as parking lot, important building periphery, or police cars, to monitor and alarm any suspicious and abnormal behaviors. Furthermore, Panoptes effectively captures one or multiple moving objects within certain field of view and facilitates to define the suspiciousness of target behavior and alarm the system.

 

The architecture of Panoptes with scalable distributed viewers.

 

A cooperative video surveillance system.