FlexEye — A flexible camera mote for sensor networks

Abstract

In this paper the description of FlexEye - a visual sensor mote suitable of functioning as super node in the static wireless sensor networks is provided. With mobility features added on to FlexEye, the platform can be used as high performance mobile node in mobile wireless sensor networks or as a node in swarm robotics. A comparison of FlexEye with existing camera platforms developed for sensor networks is made on parameters like processing capabilities, power consumption, cost, time to prototype, support for future expansion, etc. The paper elaborates on the custom off the shelf hardware components used in design and the resource pipelined image acquisition technique implemented on the FlexEye mote for acquiring the high resolution images in real time using minimalistic resources. The paper also provides quantitative details on the achieved frame rates and power consumption details of the FlexEye platform.