Smart Cameras: A Review

Smart cameras are cameras that can perform tasks far beyond simply taking photos and recording videos. Thanks to the purposely built-in intelligent image processing and pattern recognition algorithms, smart cameras can detect motion, measure objects, read vehicle number plates, and even recognize human behaviors. They are essential components to build active and automated control systems for many applications, and they will play significant role in our daily life in the near future. This paper aims to provide a first comprehensive review of smart camera technologies and applications. Here, we analyse the reasons behind the recent rapid growth of the smart cameras, discuss different categories of them and review their system architectures. We also examine their intelligent algorithms, features and applications. Finally we conclude with a discussion on design issues, challenges and future technological directions