CRI: Imaging and Non-Imaging Sensor Laboratory for Urban Disaster Management

University Of California-Riverside, Riverside CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project, instrumenting a laboratory with a range of sensory devices to enable research on urban disaster management, focuses on collecting, integrating, and analyzing data from video and other sensors. The lab consists of imaging and non-imaging sensors that facilitate interdisciplinary research involving sensor networks, video processing, communications, and networking. Such facility enables collaborations leading to the development of algorithms whose novelty lies in the tight integration of the output of the sensors for maximum information exploitation. This integration should lead to a more holistic approach to understanding the disaster environment and enable providing better decision support systems for emergency personnel. The research focuses on four problems: -Networking protocols, -Video data processing (mainly motion tracking and behavior modeling), -Data compression, and -Data fusion at different stages. Broader Impact: The project develops a framework that integrates existing methods of disaster management with new sensors and communication technology to provide a more current and up-to-date information of the disaster environment. The work addresses the prevalent problem of disaster management by enhancing the type and processing of information to the emergency personnel, hence the expectation of high societal impact.