This book provides a broad overview of both the technical challenges in sensor network development, and the real-world applications of distributed sensing. Important aspects of distributed computing in large-scale networked sensor systems are analyzed in the context of human behavior understanding, including topics on systems design tools and techniques. Additionally, the book examines a varied range of applications. Features: contains valuable contributions from an international selection of leading experts in the field; presents a high-level introduction to the aims and motivations underpinning distributed sensing; describes decision-making algorithms in the presence of complex sensor networks; provides a detailed analysis of the design, implementation, and development of a distributed network of homogeneous or heterogeneous sensors; reviews the application of distributed sensing to human behavior understanding and autonomous intelligent vehicles; includes a helpful glossary and a list of acronyms.

Highly interdisciplinary in scope, bridging computer vision, networked embedded sensing and artificial intelligence

Part I: Distributed Sensing - Architectures.- Towards Cognitive and Perceptive Video Systems.- Access-Centric In-Network Storage Optimization in Distributed Sensing Networks.- Decentralized Human Tracking in Visual Sensor Networks.- Real-Time Tracking for Moving Target in WSN with Uncovered Holes.- Sequential Anomaly Detection Using Wireless Sensor Networks in Unknown Environment.- Part II: Distributed Sensing - Applications.- A Full-Scale Hardware Solution for Crowd Evacuation via Multiple Cameras.- Visual Sensor Networks - Adaptive Online Configuration of Surveillance Networks with Distributed Smart Cameras.- Human Detection and Tracking in Healthcare Applications Through the Use of a Network of Sensors.- Automatic Players Detection and Tracking in Multi-Camera Tennis Videos.- Data Fusion with a Dense Sensor Network for Anomaly Detection in Smart Homes.- People Counting Across Non-Overlapping Camera Views by Flow Estimation among Foreground Regions.- 2D Human Pose Estimation and Tracking in Non-Overlapping Cameras.- Exploiting Crowd Synthesis for Multi-Camera Human Tracking.- Part III: Multi-Robot Systems.- Distributed Probabilistic Search and Tracking of Agile Mobile Ground Targets Using a Network of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.- A Heterogeneous Robotic Network for Distributed Ambient Assisted Living.- Cooperative Multi-Robot Patrol in an Indoor Infrastructure.- Distributed Thermal Identification and Exploitation for Multiple Soaring UAVs.- Distributed Coordination of Networked Robots for Perimeter Surveillance Tasks.- Social-Aware Coordination of Multi-Robot Systems Based on Institutions.- Design of Safety Map with Collectives of Smartphone Sensors.