An Intelligent Visible/Infrared Omnidirectional Camera for Mast-mounted In-Port Video Surveillance System

"The primary objective of this SBIR program is to develop a novel mast-mounted, omnidirectional, all-weather high-resolution video sensor that overcomes the drawbacks of conventional video surveillance systems and existing omnidirectional cameras. Theproposed sensor, dubbed as the "Omni-Watchdog¿", combines a 360-degree "OmniEye" camera with a high-resolution pan/tilt/zoom camera that has complementary functionalities to obtain simultaneous hemispherical field of view and high-resolution image forselective targets. Its unique design also offers three dimensional measurement capability for gauging the distance and location of the identified object. To facilitate the operations in day/night and all weather (fog, cloud, dust, smoke, and haze)conditions, we also integrate an infrared sensor into the Omni-Watchdog design. The co-registered visible and IR video images provide a rich source of information for object detection, tracking, classification, alarm setting and digital recording andvideo analysis. The Omni-Watchdog is well suited for serving as one of critical components of an in-port ship perimeter monitoring security system for dockside and adjacent water coverage for detecting/tracking unauthorized personnel or small vesselswithin a ship's security perimeter. The commercial market for the technology to be developed under this SBIR is obviously sizable. The proposed Omni-Watchdog systems can be used in security enhancement f