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A master's thesis from Aalborg University
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Intelligent IP Camera, An FPGA Motion Detection Implementation

Authors

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Term

4. term

Publication year

2008

Abstract

Denne afhandling undersøger, om en FPGA – en genkonfigurerbar chip – kan forbedre videoovervågning ved at bygge et prototype “smartkamera”. Kameraets sensor overvåger et rum og viser livevideo på en VGA-skærm. Målet er kun at optage, når der registreres bevægelse, gemme klip på et SD-kort og gøre dem tilgængelige over Ethernet. Vi arbejder med hardware–software co-design for at køre en bevægelsesdetekteringsalgoritme på en Nios II softcore-processor inde i FPGA’en, med hardwareacceleration hvor det er relevant. Videofangst og liveoverførsel blev opbygget helt i hardware med Verilog og fungerer stabilt. Bevægelsesdetektionen bygger på baggrundssubtraktion, hvor hvert billede sammenlignes med en referencebaggrund for at finde ændringer. På grund af begrænset hukommelse på det valgte DE2-kort (8 MB SDRAM) kunne optagelse og lagring på selve systemet ikke færdiggøres. For at teste algoritmen brugte vi billedrammer lagret på en desktop-computer og implementerede detektionen i software (ANSI-C). Resultaterne tyder på, at FPGA’er kan optimere videoovervågning, men at der kræves en specialtilpasset platform med mere hukommelse (for eksempel hundreder af megabyte SDRAM i stedet for 8 MB) frem for et standardkort.

This thesis explores whether an FPGA—a reconfigurable computer chip—can improve video surveillance by building a prototype “smart camera.” The camera sensor monitors a room and shows live video on a VGA screen. The goal is to record only when motion is detected, store clips on an SD card, and make them available over an Ethernet network. We investigate hardware–software co-design to run a motion detection algorithm on a Nios II softcore processor inside the FPGA, with hardware acceleration where useful. Video capture and live transmission were built entirely in hardware using Verilog and work reliably. The motion detection method is background subtraction, which compares each frame to a reference background to flag changes. Because the selected DE2 board has limited memory (8 MB SDRAM), the on-board recording and storage functions could not be completed. To evaluate the algorithm, we used frames stored on a desktop computer and implemented detection in software (ANSI-C). Our results suggest that FPGAs can optimize video surveillance, but a custom platform with larger memory (for example, hundreds of megabytes of SDRAM instead of 8 MB) would be needed rather than a standard off-the-shelf board.

[This abstract was generated with the help of AI]