Integrating multiple camera streams

[seandoyle]

Hi -

I'm very new to Parallela and I have a general idea for a project but I wanted to ask if there was a simpler mechanism than what I've been planning.

I need to be able to integrate multiple video streams - either 4 or 6 of them into a larger video stream. The cameras field of view will overlap (slightly) and the integrated view will be a single merged view.

Within the merged view I may do some image processing (limited feature recognition, some geometry corrections) or compression (probably wavelet).

The simplest way I can see to do this seems a bit kludgy to me: I could have multiple Raspberry Pi computers (and cameras) that pushed the images over ethernet to the Parallela. The Parallela could stitch these images together and do the other image manipulation in a pipeline. The frame rate and image size could be varied depending on what the throughput is. Perhaps some code could run on the Pi's GPUs and some on the Parallela - I'm still trying to think this through.

I think something like this might work - but from a hardware point of view it's a lot of cables and all of the devices together would draw a fair amount of power. Is there something more elegant than this for getting multiple I/O streams than separate CPUs and ethernet? I don't know if there are daughterboard solutions for this but I'd be interested in learning more.

Thanks

Sean

[FHuettig]

Hi Sean, sounds like a very cool project. I don't know if you've selected your cameras yet or if you have special requirements, but can you consider using GigE cameras? That way they could all be connected by an ethernet switch to the Parallella and images could be requested as needed. It would be a very clean system. -Fred

[seandoyle]

Fred -

I'm not sure - GigE cameras might be overkill for what I need but I should find out more. Do you have a particular vendor of them that you'd recommend?

I don't know that I need frame rates this high - 30fps might be adequate. I need multiple cameras because they are fairly close to a fluorescent plate and the form factor may need to be fairly flat. The GigE cameras look like they run a few hundred each and the Raspberry Pi ones are ~$30. One advantage of having a Pi in the middle is that it does have a GPU for some initial processing. But I hadn't known of GigE cameras before you mentioned them so it's something else that I'll need to read up on.

Thanks

Sean

[FHuettig]

The last one I bought I picked up very cheaply on eBay, but then you get what you get and I don't even see any cheap ones listed right now. I can see how it would be nice to have some extra per-camera processing available for only $35 each, but if you don't need the extra computes then a pure-GigE system might save you some hassles and interfacing. Good luck and I hope you'll let us know how it goes!

[Gravis]

[shodruk]

This system may be suitable for the purpose.

http://www.parallella.org/2013/09/10/ex ... th-pixels/

s/usb webcams/rpi camera modules/

[Gravis]