LabVIEW application for movement detection using image acquisition and processing

This paper presents a LabVIEW application and a hardware module used for movement detection of objects in a surveillance area (nuclear plant perimeters, frontiers, etc.) The system use as sensor a single video camera connected to the PC on the USB interface. An external module connected to the parallel interface of PC is used to drive a stepper motor that provides the proper orientation of the video camera. The extension to spherical coordinate orientation can be achieved using two similar electronic modules. The image acquisition and processing is realized in LabVIEW graphical programming environment. This confers to the application all the advantages of this software: modularity, simple implementation, attractive user interface, flexibility and possibility to develop very easy new features. The presented implementation can be also used in machine vision, robotics but also in equipments for automatic inspection of electronic modules.