Interconnected Network of Cameras

The real-time development of multi-camera systems is a great challenge. Synchronization and large data rates of the cameras adds to the complexity of these systems as well. The complexity of such system also increases as the number of their incorporating cameras increases. The customary approach to implementation of such system is a central type, where all the raw stream from the camera are first stored then processed for their target application. An alternative approach is to embed smart cameras to these systems instead of ordinary cameras with limited or no processing capability. Smart cameras with intra and inter camera processing capability and programmability at the software and hardware level will offer the right platform for distributed and parallel processing for multicamera systems real-time application development. Inter camera processing requires the interconnection of smart cameras in a network arrangement. A novel hardware emulating platform is introduced for demonstrating the concept of the interconnected network of cameras. A methodology is demonstrated for the interconnection network of camera construction and analysis. A sample application is developed and demonstrated.