Leveraging Multiview Video Coding in Clustered Multimedia Sensor Networks

We experimentally characterize the compression efficiency of Multiview Video Coding (MVC) techniques in Wireless Multimedia Sensor network (WMSN) composed of multiple video cameras with possibly overlapping field of views. We derive an empirical model that predicts the compression efficiency as a function of the common sensed area (CSA) between different camera views. We show that the CSA depends not only on geometrical relationships among the relative positions of different cameras, but also on several object-related phenomena, e.g., occlusions and motion, and on low-level phenomena such as variations in illumination. We then apply the model to a WMSN, where we create clusters based on the CSA as estimated by exchanging local data. Based on this estimates, we form clusters and measure the resulting transmission rate. Numerical simulation results show that building clusters based on a CSA criterion can bring significant performance gains in terms of bandwidth efficiency. The herein presented promising results pave the way for clustering optimization taking into account different networks constraints and conditions.