Smart cameras for ITS in urban environment

Fully automatic video and image analysis from traffic monitoring cameras is a fast-emerging field based on computer vision techniques with a growing impact on intelligent transport systems (ITS). This chapter first envisages applications of smart cameras and visual sensor network (VSN) to urban scenarios, highlighting specific challenges and peculiarities. Embedded vision nodes are introduced and a brief survey of existing hardware solutions is provided, and the implementation of general computer vision algorithms on smart cameras and VSN is then addressed. The chapter identifies four different scopes that can be targeted thanks to video-surveillance based systems, namely safety and security, law enforcement, billing and traffic monitoring and management. The chapter gives a brief overview of each of them. It also presents the design and development of a sensor node prototype based on VSN concepts.