Efficient Control of PTZ Cameras in Automated Video Surveillance Systems

This paper deals with the camera control problem in automated video surveillance. We develop a solution that seeks to optimize the overall subject recognition probability by controlling the pan, tilt, and zoom of various deployed Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) cameras. Since the number of subjects is usually much larger than the number of video cameras, the problem to be addressed is how to assign subjects to these cameras. This control of cameras is based on the direction of the subject´s movement and its location, distances from the cameras, occlusion, overall recognition probability so far, and the expected time to leave the site, as well as the movements of cameras and their capabilities and limitations. The developed solution works with realistic 3D environments and not just 2D scenes. We analyze the effectiveness of the proposed solution through extensive simulation.