Abstract
A system for multiple camera networks is proposed for continuous monitoring of ecosystems by processing image time series. The system is built around the Finnish Meteorological Image PROcessing Toolbox (FMIPROT), which includes data acquisition, processing and visualization from multiple camera networks. The toolbox has a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) for which only minimal computer knowledge and skills are required to use it. Images from camera networks are acquired and handled automatically according to the common communication protocols, e.g., File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Processing features include GUI based selection of the region of interest (ROI), automatic analysis chain, extraction of ROI based indices such as the green fraction index (GF), red fraction index (RF), blue fraction index (BF), green-red vegetation index (GRVI), and green excess (GEI) index, as well as a custom index defined by a user-provided mathematical formula. Analysis results are visualized on interactive plots both on the GUI and hypertext markup language (HTML) reports. The users can implement their own developed algorithms to extract information from digital image series for any purpose. The toolbox can also be run in non-GUI mode, which allows running series of analyses in servers unattended and scheduled. The system is demonstrated using an environmental camera network in Finland.
Highlights
Webcam photography is an established way of monitoring the conditions in the environment, for instance for recreation purposes
Finnish Meteorological Image PROcessing Toolbox (FMIPROT) provides automatic downloading and handling of images from multiple camera networks which can be added to the toolbox using the graphical user interface (GUI)
In terms of calculation of the index, Green-Red vegetation index (GRVI) is similar to the widely used NDVI, where near-infrared reflectance is used instead of green reflectance. The differences between these two indices are discussed by Motohka et al, where the applicability of GRVI for vegetation phenology is studied
Summary
Webcam photography is an established way of monitoring the conditions in the environment, for instance for recreation purposes (ski resorts, hiking trails). On the other hand, existing software lacks the features required to examine and benefit fully from existing and future camera networks For achieving such goals, it is very important to establish systems, platforms and easy-to-use toolboxes for acquiring and handling images from different networks having different protocols and standards. Considering current and possible features, for analyzing images of comprehensive camera networks, and for creating operational data extraction and processing with an easy to use toolbox, a more customized approach would be of high value.
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