UTEPcam: A scalable wireless vision sensor architecture for computational, power and bandwidth constrained scenarios
Abstract
UTEPcam is a low cost and power vision sensor node system. UTEPcam is composed of an Atmel atmega32 8-bit microcontroller, a CY7C09099V static RAM chip, an OV6620 CMOS image sensor, a XBEE transceiver and a SD Flash memory card, and four logic gates. UTEPcam's simple yet efficiently architecture enables it to capture video at one frame per second. At its absolute highest, it is estimated that UTEPcam consumes only 1.321 Amps. When in standby, UTEPcam consumes 21 microamps. Furthermore, UTEPcam's program takes up only 1Kbyte of memory space. UTEPcam's CPU, a simple 8-bit MCU, is unlike most vision sensor node architectures. The latter results in a small, low power and long service life image sensor node. Furthermore, unlike other image sensor node architectures, UTEPcam's architecture allows its CPU to be swapped for either a resource rich or computationally constrained CPU. If the UTEPcam CPU is swapped for a resource rich CPU then its features may be increased. Conversely, if the UTEPcam CPU is swapped for a computationally constrained CPU, then UTEPcam's power consumption may be reduced even further. In addition, the fact that UTEPcam's program takes up only 1Kbyte of memory space suggests plenty of room for software improvements such as incorporating image processing to the vision system, thereby converting UTEPcam into a smart camera. UTEPcam can also transmit either pre-recorded video or it can send video in real-time. Although UTEPcam is setup to be controlled via UTEPcamView, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) designed for UTEPcam, it can also be controlled from any terminal including Window's default HyperTerminal. When being run from a HyperTerminal, the incoming image data can be saved to a regular text file.
Subject Area
Computer Engineering|Electrical engineering
Recommended Citation
Zepeda, Ricardo, "UTEPcam: A scalable wireless vision sensor architecture for computational, power and bandwidth constrained scenarios" (2010). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI1498329.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI1498329