Algebraic Approach for Recovering Topology in Distributed Camera Networks

Abstract : Camera networks are widely used for tasks such as surveillance, monitoring and tracking. In order to accomplish these tasks, knowledge of localization information such as camera locations and other geometric constraints about the environment (e.g. walls, rooms, and building layout) are typically considered to be essential. However, this information is not always required for many tasks such as estimating the topology of camera network coverage, or coordinate-free object tracking and navigation. In this paper we propose a simplicial representation (called CN-Complex) that can be constructed from discrete local observations from cameras, and utilize this novel representation to recover the topological information of the network coverage. We prove that our representation captures the correct topological information from network coverage for 2.5D layouts, and demonstrate their utility in simulations as well as a real-world experimental set-up. Our proposed approach is particularly useful in the context of ad-hoc camera networks in indoor/outdoor urban environments with distributed but limited computational power and energy.