Pre-processing Architecture for IR-Visual Smart Camera Based on Post-Processing Constraints

Abstract:
In embedded vision systems, the efficiency of preprocessing architectures have a ripple effect on post-processing functions such as feature extraction, classification and recognition. In this work, we investigated a pre-processing architecture for smart camera system, integrating a thermal and vision sensors, by considering the constraints of post-processing. By utilizing the locality feature of the system, we performed preprocessing on the camera node by using FPGA and postprocessing on the client device by using the microprocessor platform, NVIDIA Tegra. The study shows that for outdoor people surveillance applications with complex background and varying lighting conditions, the pre-processing architecture, which transmits thermal binary Region-of-Interest (ROI) images, offers better classification accuracy and smaller complexity as compared to alternative approaches.