Application of Convolutional Neural Networks in Visual Feedback of Movable Camera Mounting Control

Abstract

The aim of this work is to present an automatic solution to control the surveillance camera merely by the movements of the operator’s head. The method uses convolutional neural networks that work in a course-to-fine manner to estimate head orientation in image data. First, the image frame of the operator’s head is acquired from the camera on the operator’s side of the system. The exact position of a head, given by its bounding box, is estimated by a Multitask Cascaded Convolutional Network. Second, the customized network for a given scenario is used to classify the orientation of the head-on image data. In particular, the dedicated image dataset was collected for training purposes and was given a discrete set of possible orientations in the vertical and horizontal planes. The accuracy of the estimators is higher than 80%, with an average of 4.12 fps of validation time. Finally, the current head orientation data are converted into a control signal for two degrees of freedom surveillance camera mounting. The feedback response time is 1.5 s, which is sufficient for most real-life surveillance applications.