Task-selection and task-merging for directional and vision-based sensors

Many vision research projects involve a sensor or camera doing one thing and doing it well. Fewer research projects have been done involving a sensor trying to satisfy simultaneous and conflicting tasks. Satisfying a involves pointing the sensor in the direction demanded by the task. We seek ways to mitigate and select between competing tasks and also, if possible, merge the tasks together to be simultaneously achieved by the sensor. This would make a simple pan-tilt camera a very powerful instrument. These two approaches are task-selection and task-merging respectively. We built a simple testbed to implement our task-selection and task-merging schemes. We use a digital camera as our sensor attached to pan and tilt servos capable of pointing the sensor in different directions. We use three different types of tasks for our research: target tracking, surveillance coverage, and initiative. Target tracking is the of following a target with a known set of features. Surveillance coverage is the of ensuring that all areas of the space are routinely scanned by the sensor. Initiative is the of focusing on new things of potential interest should they appear in the course of other activities. Given these heterogeneous descriptions, we achieve task-selection by assigning priority functions to each and letting the camera select among the tasks to service. To achieve task-merging, we introduce a concept called task that represent the regions of space the tasks wish to attend with the sensor. We then merge the maps and select a region to attend that will satisfy multiple tasks at the same time if possible.