Video switching and sensor fusion for multi-camera sensing systems

With the low cost of solid-state camera systems, it is now possible to include many cameras on a mobile robot or other machine. However, video processing is still relatively expensive. Therefore it is often desirable to share several cameras with a single processor. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design of a video switching system that permits eight cameras to be multiplexed with a single chip. Multiples of eight could also easily be accomplished. The heart of the system is a Maxim video switch. The user simply selects using a three-bit control signal, which camera signal is selected. The output of the video switch is then the desired camera image. One application of this video switch is a four camera input system to a mobile robot being constructed at the University of Cincinnati. Other applications include surveillance and other mobile systems. The decision as to which camera to observe can be made automatically from a computer providing a great versatility. For example, supplemental motion detectors could be used to activate the camera selection for a surveillance system. Higher-level logic has been used on our mobile robot application. Still higher-level logic could be used to fuse the video information in various ways before processing. The significance of this device is that it provides a wealth of video information to be used at the discretion of either a human viewer or automatic system.