Analytics-Based Power Management for Wireless Cameras
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Battery-powered wireless cameras have limited battery life due to continuous recording requirements, leading to inefficient energy usage and reduced operational duration, while energy harvesting cameras face deployment challenges with non-integrated solar panels.
Innovation Solution
Implementing analytics-based power management systems that analyze captured scenes using video analytics models to determine whether to continue recording, enter a low power state, or perform power-saving functions, allowing cameras to dynamically manage energy usage based on their energy budget and sharing information across the network for optimized power conservation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If continuous recording is implemented to ensure no valuable footage is missed, then recording reliability is improved, but energy consumption increases and battery life decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by capturing preview frames and analyzing scene contents before committing to full recording. The analytics engine pre-evaluates whether recorded content is worth saving by detecting motion, objects, or events of interest, allowing the camera to wake from sleep mode only when valuable content is detected, thus avoiding wasted energy on unimportant footage.
2Use of energy by moving object
If motion-based triggers are used to reduce battery drain, then energy consumption is reduced, but recording quality decreases due to false triggers and non-important video clips
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback by continuously analyzing captured content through an analytics engine that evaluates motion patterns, object detection, and scene understanding. This feedback loop determines whether to maintain recording, enter sleep mode, or adjust recording parameters, ensuring that recording decisions are based on intelligent analysis rather than simple motion thresholds, thereby reducing false triggers while maintaining recording quality.
3Ease of operation
If live viewing is enabled to allow users to monitor the surrounding area, then user accessibility is improved, but energy consumption increases and battery life decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by enabling live viewing only when necessary rather than continuously. The analytics engine monitors scene activity and triggers live viewing mode only when motion or events of interest are detected, allowing users to access live feed on-demand rather than maintaining constant power consumption, thus balancing user accessibility with energy conservation.
4Duration of action of moving object
If energy harvesting panels are added to battery-powered cameras to extend operational duration, then battery life is improved, but device complexity increases and deployment difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the energy harvesting function from the camera device itself, implementing a separate solar charging system that independently powers the camera. This modular approach allows the camera to be powered externally through solar panels without integrating complex energy harvesting components into the camera housing, thereby extending operational duration while minimizing device complexity and maintaining ease of deployment.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods are disclosed for managing power use of a camera and/or camera system. In response to a wakeup trigger, contents of a scene are captured by the camera. Based on a received energy budget for the camera, a scene analysis is performed on the scene, where the contents of the scene are analyzed according to one or more analytics models. Based on the output of the one or more analytics models and the received energy budget for the camera, it is determined whether the camera should continue capturing the contents of the scene or enter a power state lower than a previous power state (e.g., go to sleep).