Using computer vision techniques for dangerous situation detection in domotic applications

We describe an integrated solution devised for inhouse video surveillance, to control the safety of people living in a domestic environment. The system is composed of robust moving object detection module, able to disregard shadows, a tracking module designed for large occlusion solution and of a posture detector. Shadows, large occlusions and deformable model of people are key features of inhouse surveillance. Moreover, the requirements of high speed reaction to dangerous situations and the need to implement a reliable and low cost televiewing system, led to the introduction of a new multimedia model of semantic transcoding, capable of supporting different user's requests and constraints of their devices (PDA, smart phones, ...). Our application context is the emerging area of domotics (from the Latin word domus that means "home" and informatics) and, in particular, indoor video surveillance of the house where people with some difficulties (elders and disabled people) can now live in a sufficient degree of autonomy, thanks to the strong interaction with the new technologies that can be distributed in the house with affordable costs and high reliability.