Hamed Sabri, Saad Khattak, Bill Kapralos, Khalil El-Khatib, and Mouhcine Guennoun

University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. L1H 7K4

Overview (1):

Introduction

Motivation

Goals

Graphical User Interface Overview

Graphical User Interface Scheme

Conclusions

Demo

Introduction (1):

Immediate Need for Surveillance

Applications in a Large Number of Areas

Demands for homeland security have increased

immensely in the last few years particularly after

several current natural and man-made disasters

Government agencies are reviewing their policies and updating/upgrading their home-land security, emergency preparedness, and emergency management toolboxes

Law enforcement, personal security, commercial, military, homeland security, etc.

Introduction (2):

Immediate Need for Surveillance

Applications in a Large Number of Areas

(cont.)

Many surveillance systems exist but

Rely on existing infrastructure “hard-wired”

Difficult to easily move from location to location

Can be expensive and tedious to install in existing environments for example, the drilling of walls and ceilings to allow for internet and power connections

Cannot necessarily be established promptly in cases of emergency

Motivation (1):

Monitoring of Many Surveillance Cameras

How can we efficiently control and monitor a large

number of cameras ?

Using humans to do so is not necessarily cost-effective does not scale!

Humans can miss potentially important events altogether this can have serious consequences!

Many applications where monitor and control of a

large number of cameras where simple interface to

control and monitor a large number of cameras is vital

Goals (1):

Develop Graphical User Interface That

Allows for the Simple Control and

Monitoring of a Large Number for

Surveillance Cameras

Employ virtual reality technology

Allow for simple control of each camera in the

environment being monitored

Pan-tilt, zoom, brightness adjustment, etc

Allow user to access all cameras of the environment

Interface Overview (1):

Description

The graphical user interface

scheme presented in this

Consists two components:

i) Three-dimensional virtual room set-up (rendering).

ii) Camera views.

Graphical User Interface Scheme (1):

3D Virtual Room Set-up

The virtual room is an accurate three-dimensional

model of the environment being monitored

Manually constructed using Autodesk's 3ds Max although any other comparable modeling software package can also be used)

Level of detail can vary depending on the needs of the application.

Graphical User Interface Scheme (2):

3D Virtual Room Set-up

Included within the model is a number of virtual cameras ,

one for each camera within the real environment

Each virtual camera is positioned within the virtual

environment such that its position corresponds to the

real-world camera it represents

Interface allows user to navigate through the environment

in order to locate cameras that may not necessarily be

within their current field of view (within the virtual model).

Graphical User Interface Scheme (2):

Virtual Cameras

Graphical User Interface Scheme (3):

3D Virtual Room Set-

up

Examples

Graphical User Interface Scheme (4):

Graphical User Interface Scheme (5):

Graphical User Interface Scheme (6):

Graphical User Interface Scheme (7):

Graphical User Interface Scheme (8):

Camera Views (cont.)

When user chooses to view the video from a

camera, live feed is provided in a separate window

Can view output of one, four, and 16 cameras in one

window

With multiple camera views user has option of manually

choosing camera views they wish to monitor or the views

can be provided automatically by the system

Conclusions (1):

Summary

Virtual reality-based 3D user interface scheme for the control of a large number of surveillance cameras

Interface consists of a realistic (rendered) 3D view of the environment being monitored

“Virtual cameras” are included in this 3D view, positioned at a location corresponding to their location in the real environment

Human operator is able to navigate through rendered environment and easily control the cameras in the real environment via interaction with the corresponding virtual camera

Conclusions (2):

Future work

The work presented today is ongoing and

currently, various additions and modifications are

being investigated

Currently evaluating the user interface with human subjects to evaluate its effectiveness

Will incorporate ‘intelligence” into the vision system intelligent vision systems can be used to automatically detect and monitor particular events

Demo virtual room (Rawkee-X3D) (1)

Demo virtual room (X3D) (2)

What is X3D?

X3D is a royalty-free open standards file

format and run-time architecture to

represent and communicate 3D scenes and

objects using XML. It is an ISO standard that

provides a system for the storage, and playback

of real time graphics content embedded in

applications, all within an open architecture to

support a wide array of domains and user

scenarios.

Demo virtual room (X3D) (3)

X3D Features at a GlanceXML Integrated: the key to integration with:

• Web Services

• Distributed Networks

• Cross-platform, inter-application file and data transfer

Evolutionary: easy to update and preserve VRML97 content as X3D

Broadcast/Embedded Application Ready: from mobile phones to supercomputers

Real-Time: graphics are high quality, real-time, interactive, and include audio and video as well as 3D data.

Well-Specified: makes it easier to build conformant, consistent and bug-free implementations

Demo virtual room (Rawkee-X3D) (4)

Demo virtual room (Rawkee-X3D) (5)