Real-time video surveillance system using a field programmable gate array

Abstract

In this article, a stand-alone real-time video surveillance system is presented. This system monitors a scene through a fixed master camera with a wide field of view and then directs a slave camera to capture automatically high-resolution images of moving targets within the scene. Motion detection is achieved by means of background differencing using adaptive thresholding and a temporal filter to continually update the background. The user can set the system to respond to different types of targets on the basis of their size and shape. The system utilizes a single-field programmable gate array to control the capture and storage of image frames from the master camera, to perform all the necessary video-rate arithmetic and logical operations on images, and to generate all the signals needed to direct the slave camera. Results illustrating the highly successful operation of the system and comparisons with other reported surveillance systems are included. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol 11, 130–137, 2000