The First International Conference of Electrical, Communication, Computer, Power and Control Engineering ICECCPCE'13/December17-18, 2013

Efficient Infrared Sensor and Camera Based

Monitoring System
Qusay shihab hamad Dr. Muayad Sadik Croock Prof. Salih Al Qaraawi
Department of Computer Engineering Department of Computer Engineering Department of Computer Engineering
University of technology University of technology University of technology
Baghdad, Iraq Baghdad, Iraq Baghdad, Iraq
engitq@yahoo.com muayadkrook@yahoo.com al_qaraawi55@yahoo.com

Abstract- In this paper, an efficient control algorithm for cameras that cover the crossed sub-area by objects. It is
infrared (IR) sensor based camera monitoring system is
concluded that at a time, not all cameras are run, but just
proposed. The aim of this algorithm is to detect and record the
state of the motioned objects that cross the covered area by the
the required ones. This is to save more power and
monitoring scheme, in which both consumed power and storage storage capacity. Different case studies have been
capacity are reduced. This is done by controlling the work of the considered in the simulation to test efficiency of the
allocated cameras to operate independently depending on the proposed algorithm in terms of saved power and
received signals of the distributed IR sensors. The obtained
capacity.
results show the efficiency and powerful of the proposed system
in terms of required power and storage capacity and coverage.
The remaining of the paper is organized as follows. In
Section II, the related works have been discussed.
Keywords-wireless sensor networks; monitoring systems; IR Section III describes the methodology used in proposed
sensors.
system. Section IV explains the obtained simulation
results. The conclusion is drawn in Section V.
I. INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, the modern monitoring systems are II. RELATED WORKS

established on three main concepts; low power, less cost Over the last decade, many wireless communications
and high efficiency. This is to satisfy the increasing based monitoring systems have been extensively
requirements of the markets, which include banks, developed and studied for numerous applications. The
companies and other important institutes [1]. authors in [6] proposed a web-based building
The camera based monitoring systems costs the environmental monitoring system based on wireless
production companies and the end users a lot of money communication scheme. In [2], a potential technique for
due to the required consumed power and storage monitoring the indoor environment was introduced. In
capacity [2]. Recent researches focus on the addition, building monitoring system has been
development of these systems to reduce both power and considered. Moreover, a wireless network based
capacity. In addition, the limitations, which include the monitoring system was deployed in a number of
distance and costs, of using wired communication residential and commercial buildings in [7]. In [8], some
systems have been endorsed by employing the wireless applications have been discussed in the building
schemes [3], [4]. On the other hand, the wireless monitoring system in terms of performance metrics. The
communications systems also suffer from numerous authors of [1] introduced the huge potential advantages
problems, such the required power and channel of using wireless temperature monitoring systems. In
conditions [5]. [9], a genetic algorithm was proposed to increase the
In this paper, an efficient camera based monitoring ability of solving the coverage problem in a wireless
system using infrared (IR) sensor network has been sensor network based camera monitoring system. In
proposed. The main core of this system is the novel [10], a new camera based traffic monitoring system
algorithm that controls the operations of the involved using graph model was introduced. Additionally, the
cameras. This can be performed by receiving the IR Markov chain and Monte Carlo methods were utilized.
signals from the allocated terminals of the covered area The authors of [11] proposed a low power consumption
by the base station, which can be called the control monitoring system using energy-aware control elements
center. The control center sends the operation signals to method.
 The First International Conference of Electrical, Communication, Computer, Power and Control Engineering ICECCPCE'13/December17-18, 2013

III. METHODOLOGY acknowledgment from the base station. Fig. 2 explains

the above operation as a flow chart.
A. Designed Monitoring Scheme
In this sub-Section the designed scheme of the
proposed monitoring system is introduced as shown in
Fig. 1. This figure consists of four cells and each of
which contains two cameras, placed in the opposite
comers. Additionally, each cell is surrounded by
numerous IR sensors. For example, in cell 1 the outage
edges are monitored by two lines of sensors. The outer
line contains three sensors, fixed at (30 & 60 & 90 cm)
from the ground. This is to guarantee the reality of the
detected objects. Moreover, the inner line has been
established with a single sensor (50 cm). The job of the
second line is to know the movement direction of the
detected objects. In addition to those lines there are two
lines, crossed at the center of the cell with single sensor,
fixed at (50 cm). The function of the crossed lines is the
allocation of which camera should operate to cover the
objects inside the cell. The same sensor distribution
scenario is adopted by the other cells.

cellI

!T,I�== ��-=:::::: IR sensors

��== =
� client computer Figure 2: Flowchart of Sensor Node

At the base station or control center, the proposed

algorithm collects the signals of the IR sensors of the
designed monitoring scheme, shown in Fig. 3. An
acknowledgment signal is sent back to the terminal IR
sensor to confirm the receiving. As the cells operate
independently, the motion of the objects from outside the
� wireless camera

,/'
scheme to inside and the opposite way in addition to
cell 2 � cell3 movement inside the cell and from cell to other can be
Figure 1: System Diagram covered and controlled by the proposed algorithm. The
mentioned movements of the objects are endorses in the
next Section with different case studies. Fig. 3 describes
B. Proposed Algorithm the main step work of the proposed algorithm as a flow
As mentioned earlier, the proposed camera based chart.
monitoring system includes an algorithm used to control
the operations of the involved cameras. In other words, at IV. Simulation Results
a time just the cameras that cover the detected objects are The proposed camera-based monitoring system is
working. This can lead to a sensible reduction in the tested in his Section. The simulation environment used to
power and storage capacity in comparison with full work design the monitoring scheme is built in MATLAB
of cameras all the time. language. In this paper, the required operation power of
At the designed scheme shown in Fig. 1, the each camera is 5 Watt [11]. In addition, the storage
distributed IR sensors are in work and ready to detect and capacity is assumed to be 270 M byte/hour according to
object cross the allocated lines. At the time of the outer the standard H264 [12]. Four case studies have been
lines is crossed by objects, the IR signal packets are considered to test the efficiency and affectivity of the
transferred to the base station to be processed. These IR proposed system and algorithm. These cases are
packets are continued to be transmitted until receiving an explained in details as:
 The First International Conference of Electrical, Communication, Computer, Power and Control Engineering ICECCPCE'13/December17-18, 2013

y
Step 1: before the entering of any objects to cell 1, all
cameras of the system are turned off.
Step 2: when the first object enters to cell 1 camera 1

� and 2 is wake up. Camera 2 is recording as the

object in its covered area.
Step 3: when the second object enters to cell 1, camera2
is kept in recording.
Step 4: when the third object enters to cell 1, camera2 is
also kept in recording.
Step 5: when any one of the three objects cuts the center
crossing sensor lines, camera 1 and 2 are
recording.
Step 6: when the second object moves to cell 2, camera
3 and 4 is waked up. Camera 4 is recording.
Step 7: when the third object moves to cell 2, camera 4
is kept in recording.
IF
� P""ket = ll) Step 8: when the third object moves through center
crossing sensor lines, cameras 3 and 4 are
NO
operated.
Step 9: when the third object moves to cell 3, camera 5
I YES
and 6 is waked up. Camera 6 is recording.
ca mera
Step 10: when the third object moves out cell 3, camera
l monit Oring this 6 is turned off.
are.a
Step 11: cameras 1, 2, 3, 4 are still operated due to the
availability of the first and second objects inside
cell 1 and cell 2.

Fig. 5 explains the operation of the involved cameras

Figure 3: Flowchart of Base Station
in the proposed system for some work steps of case
A. Case study 1 study l. The level of 1 at the y-axes represents the
power on status of such camera, while level 0 is the
Three objects enter sequentially to cell 1. One of power off.
them stays in cell 1, while the other two objects move to
cell 2. Then one of the moved two objects moves to cell
3 and move out from cell 3 outside the monitored area,
see Fig. 4. The status of the proposed system can be
explained in steps as follows.

camera l cellI cell4 Cameras Cameras

(111""5 •• I (III j"� •• 1

1 2 3 4 5
Cameras
6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5
Cameras
6 7 8

camera3 ·
cell2
..... .....� .............. . ............. .......... ....
-_ .

cell3
(1 IIII't . 1 (1111111.. 1
1 2 3 4 5
Cameras
6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5
Cameras
6 7 8

Figure 5 Camera operations in case study 1.

Figure 4: Case study 1
 The First International Conference of Electrical, Communication, Computer, Power and Control Engineering ICECCPCE'13/December17-18, 2013

In order to show the power saved from the Step 3: when the crossed center sensor lines of cell 1 is
implementation of the proposed system, Table 1 has cut, cameras 1 and 2 are recording.
been introduced. It describes the consumed and saved
power in each work step of case study 1. cameral

TABLE l' POWER CONSUMED IN CASE STUDY 1

No. of working cameras Power consumed

Power
STEPS proposed old proposed old saved
system systems system systems
Step 1 0 8 o Watts 40 Watts 40 Watts
Step 2 1 8 5 Watts 40 Watts 35 Watts
Step 3 1 8 5 Watts 40 Watts 35 Watts
Step 4 I 8 5 Watts 40 Watts 35 Watts
Step 5 2 8 10 Watts 40 Watts 30 Watts
Step 6 3 8 15 Watts 40 Watts 25 Watts
Step 7 3 8 15 Watts 40 Watts 25 Watts
Step 8 4 8 20 Watts 40 Watts 20 Watts
Step 9 5 8 25 Watts 40 Watts 15 Watts carner
Step 10 6 8 30 Watts 40 Watts 10 Watts Figure 6: Case study 2
Step 11 4 8 20 Watts 40 Watts 20 Watts
Step 4: when the second object enters to cell 2, camera 3
and 4 is waked up. Camera 4 is recording.
On the other hand, the other objective of this paper, Step 5: when the second object cuts the crossed center
which is the storage capacity save, has been explained in sensor lines of cell 2, cameras 3 and 4 are on.
Table 2. Step 6: when the second object moves to cell 3, camera
5 and 6 is waked up and cameras 3 and 4 are go
TABLE 2' STORAGE SPACE CONSUMED IN CASE STUDY 1 to be off. Camera 6 is recording.
Step 7: when the third object enters to cell 3 and one of
No. of working cameras Storage space consumed Storage
space
two old objects cuts the crossed center sensor
STEPS
proposed old saved lines of cell 3, cameras 5 and 6 are recording.
Proposed old MB/hour
system. systems
system systems
MB/hour MB/hour Fig. 7 illustrates the operation of the involved cameras
Step1 0 8 0 2160 2160 in the proposed system for some work steps of
Step 2 1 8 270 2160 1890
case study 2.
Step 3 1 8 270 2160 1890
Step 4 I 8 270 2160 1890 step1 step2

Step 5 2 8 540 2160 1620

• i.11
Step 6 3 8 810 2160 1350
Step 7 3 8 810 2160 1350
Step 8 4 8 1080 2160 1080
Step 9 5 8 1350 2160 810
Step 10 6 8 1620 2160 540 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Step 11 6 8 1620 2160 540 Cameras Cameras

stepS

B. Case study 2:
Three objects enter to the monitoring area. The first
object enters to cell 1 and the second one enters to cell 2
and then moves to cell 3, while the third object enters to
1 2 3 4 5
Cameras
7 8
I 1.11111 1 2 3 • 5
Cameras

step7
6 7 8

cell 3 as well. Fig. 6 explains the movement of the three

II II
objects in this case study. The work steps of the
proposed system can be summarized as:

Step 1: all cameras of the proposed system are turned off 1 2 4 5

Cameras
6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5
Cameras
6 7 8

before any entry to the objects.

Step 2: when the frrst object enters to cell 1, camera 1 Figure 7: Camera operations in case study 2.
and 2 is waked up. Camera 2 is recording.
 The First International Conference of Electrical, Communication, Computer, Power and Control Engineering ICECCPCE'13/December17-18, 2013

The profit of power of the proposed monitoring Step 5: when the object cuts one of crossed center sensor
system is explained in Table 3 for all work steps in case lines of cell 1, cameras 1 and 2 are recording.
study 2. Step 6: when the object moves to cell 2, camera 3 an 4 is
waked up and cameras 1 and 2 are off. Camera 4
TABLE 3: POWER CONSUMED IN CASE STUDY 2 is recording.

No. of working cameras Power consumed

Power
STEPS
saved
proposed old proposed old
system systems system systems

step I 0 8 o Watts 40 Watts 40 Watts

Step 2 I 8 5 Watts 40 Watts 35 Watts
Step 3 2 8 10 Watts 40 Watts 30 Watts
Step 4 3 8 15 Watts 40 Watts 25 Watts
Step 5 4 8 20 Watts 40 Watts 20 Watts
Step 6 3 8 15 Watts 40 Watts 25 Watts
Step 7 4 8 20 Watts 40 Watts 20 Watts

In addition, the storage capacity save in case study 2

produced by the proposed system is listed in Table 4.

TABLE 4' STORAGE SPACE CONSUMED IN CASE STUDY 2

No. of working Figure 8: Case study 3

Storage space consumed Storage
cameras
space
STEPS
proposed old saved
Proposed old
system. systems ME/hour Step 7: when the object cuts one of the crossed center
system systems
MB/hour ME/hour sensor lines of cell 2, cameras 3 and 4 recording.
Step 1 0 8 0 2160 2160
Step 2 I 8 270 2160 1890 Step 8: when the object moves to cell 3, camera 5 and 6
Step 3 2 8 540 2160 1620 is waked up and cameras 3 and 4 are turned off.
Step 4 3 8 810 2160 1350 Camera 6 is recording.
Step 5 4 8 1080 2160 1080
Step 6 3 8 810 2160 1350 Step 9: when the object cuts one of the crossed center
Step 7 4 8 1080 2160 1080 sensor lines of cell 3, cameras 5 and 6 are
recording.
Step 10: when the object moves to cell 4, camera 7 and 8
C. Case study 3: is waked up and cameras 5 and 6 are turned off.
In this case study, one object enters to cell 4 then Camera 8 is recording.
moves to cell 1. Later on the same object moves to cell 2 Step 11: when the object moves out the monitoring area,
and to cell 3. Finally, this object goes back to cell 4 and camera 8 is turned off.
then moves out the monitoring area as shown in figure 7.
The work steps of this case are shown below. Fig. 9 describes the working of the included cameras
in the proposed monitoring scheme for different work
steps in case study 3.
Step 1: before any object enters to cells, all cameras the Table 5 lists the consumed and saved power of the
system are turned off. proposed system in case study 3 in comparison with the
Step2: when an object enters to cell 4, camera 7 and 8 is conventional systems. At the other side, Table 6 explains
waked up. Camera 8 is recording. the saved and consumed storage capacity in case study 3.
These results compare the proposed system with the
Step 3: when the same object cuts one of the crossed conventional schemes.
center sensor lines of cell 4, cameras 7 and 8 are
recording. It is clearly shown from the results that the proposed
camera based monitoring system outperforms the
Step 4: when the object moves to cell 1, camera 1 and 2
conventional methods in terms of efficiency, power save
are waked up and cameras 7 and 8 are turned off.
and storage capacity reduction.
Camera 1 is recording.
 The First International Conference of Electrical, Communication, Computer, Power and Control Engineering ICECCPCE'13/December17-18, 2013

step1 V. CONCLUSION

0""" I (I : : ' "'.2.1 I

In this paper, an efficient camera based monitoring
system with IR sensor network has been presented. The
,

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 proposed algorithm of the investigated system controls

Cameras Cameras
the operation of the involved cameras depending on the

011: : "':P5: : 0:: :1':":

received IR sensor signals. These signals simulated the

I
movements of the objects inside the monitoring area. As
the whole cameras of the system were not working at a
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 time, the consumed power and storage capacity were
Cameras Cameras
decreased efficiently. Four case studies have been

n : , , :"':'0 ,I
considered to test the proposed system. The simulation

i
results showed the amount of power and capacity saved
in comparison with the conventional systems. As a future
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Cameras
work, the hardware implementation of the simulated
Cameras
system will be performed to cover an area of 500X500
meters. Additionally, the base station is going to be
Figure 9: Camera operations in case study 3.
replaced by microcontroller, in which the proposed
algorithm can be implemented using the considered
TABLE 5' POWER CONSUMED IN CASE STUDY 3
language.
No. of working cameras Power consumed
Power References
STEPS
saved
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system systems system systems Kittipiyakul, "Xbee wireless sensor networks for
temperature monitoring," ECTI-CARD 2010, pp. 10-14 .
Step I 0 8 o Watts 40 Watts 40 Watts
Step 2 1 8 5 Watts 40 Watts 35 Watts [2] Q. Dong, "Design of Building Monitoring Systems
Based on Wireless Sensor Networks,". Journal of
Step 3 2 8 10 Watts 40 Watts 30 Watts
Wireless Sensor Network, Vol. 2 No. 9, p. 703-709, 2010.
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Step 6 I 8 5 Watts 40 Watts 35 Watts Sensors Networks," Tsinghua University, Beijing, 2005
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Step 8 1 8 5 Watts 40 Watts 35 Watts Environments and Interactions," Wiley, 2009
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Step 10 1 8 5 Watts 40 Watts 35 Watts OEM RF Modules, Product Manual vl.x.4x - ZigBee
Step I I 0 8 o Watts 40 Watts 40 Watts Protocol For OEM RF Module Part Numbers: XB24-
BxIT -OOx,Digi International Inc.11001 Bren Road East
Minnetonka, MN 55343877912-3444 or 952 912-3444
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No. of working Skibniewski, "Wireless sensor networks as a part of a
Storage space consumed Storage
cameras web-based building environmental monitoring system,"
space
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saved 2008, Pages 729-736
proposed old
proposed old MB/hour
system. systems [7] D. Tessa, G. Elena and B. James, "Wireless Sensor
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MB/hour MB/hour Networks to Enable the Passive House- Deployment
Step 1 0 8 0 2160 2160 Experiences," Smart Sensing and Context, Berlin
Step 2 I 8 270 2160 1890 HeIdelberg: Springer, 2009, pp. 177-192
Step 3 2 8 540 2160 1620 [8] W. S. Jang and W. M. Healy, "Wireless Sensor Network
Step 4 I 8 270 2160 1890 Performance Metrics for Building Applications," Energy
Step 5 2 8 540 2160 1620 and Buildings, Vol. 42, No. 6, 20IO, pp. 862-868
Step 6 I 8 270 2160 1890 [9] A. Navin, B. Asadi, S. Hassanpour and M. Mirnia,
Step 7 2 8 540 2160 1620 "Solving Coverage Problem in Wireless Camera-Based
Step 8 1 8 270 2160 1890 Sen," Energy and Bsor Networks By Using Genetic
Step 9 2 8 540 2160 1620 Algorithm," IEEE CICN 2010, pp. 226-229.
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Step I I 0 8 0 2160 2160 Tracking on A Graph Using Markov Chain and Mote
Carlo," IEEE ICDSC 2009, pp. 1-8.
[11] "Power Consumption and Environmental Impact of
This is the result of applying the proposed algorithm Video Surveillance Systems ,".
that controls the operation of the involved cameras [12] AXIS COMMUNICATION "Bandwidth and storage
considerations, .. http://www.axis.com/products.
depending on the received IR sensor signals.