Proceedings of 2015 Global Conference on Communication Technologies(GCCT 2015)

Advanced Raspberry Pi Surveillance (ARS)

System
Patchava Vamsikrishna#1 , Shaik Riyaz Hussain#2 , Neelavarapu Ramu*3 , Paila Mohan Rao#4 ,
Goli Rohan#5, Behara Durga Siva Teja#6
#
Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering, RGUKT-Nuzvid, Andhra Pradesh, India
*
Department of Mechanical Engineering, RGUKT-Nuzvid, Andhra Pradesh, India
Email: 1vamsi.patchava@gmail.com, 2riyazhussain@rgukt.in, 3ram.neelvarapu929@gmail.com,
4
paila.mohan3@gmail.com, 5rohanr27@gmail.com, 6bds.teja4@gmail.com

Abstract - This paper explains about Advanced Raspberry Pi

Surveillance (ARS) system. Here Raspberry Pi, a credit card
sized mini-computer is used in surveillance to control threat of
thefts. The main idea of ARS system is to notify the user
whenever there is human interference in the surveillance area.
Using SimpleCV, a simple computer vision library, ARS system
captures surrounding and detects human presence. This
presence of motion notifies the user. This notification process is
done by sending short message service (SMS) through GSM
Module. Along with surveillance with notification, this ARS
system is also used during morning times for normal
surveillance which is monitored in the presence of user.
Keywords - Raspberry Pi, GSM module, SMS, Camera,
SimpleCV, Surveillance

I. INTRODUCTION

In modern times, uncontrolled threat-of-thefts are FIG1.1: RASPBERRY PI B+ BOARD

making people to worry about their valuables. So there is a
necessity of continuous surveillance of their houses which
includes their valuables. Now-a-days surveillance systems
[3] have become more purposeful in common life using
efficient computer algorithms in place of manual
observation. Whether the person is residing in his house or
out of it, the monitoring system should be active enough to
notify the person. In practice, this is done by set of
computers. This becomes complex because of the use of
Closed Circuit Cameras (CCTV) and also massive
computers. To overcome the difficulties of surveillance
through CCTV footages, Raspberry Pi a single chip mini-
computer which is intelligent enough to capture the footages
reducing the size and price.
Advance Surveillance using Raspberry Pi involves
Simple CV, which is a collection of libraries and software
that allows user to work with images or video streams that
come from cameras. It detects the human interference
through surveillance and notify [1] it to the user.
A. Raspberry Pi
Raspberry pi [4, 7] is advanced RISC machine
processed lightweight computer minimized on to a single
board. ARM technology used on the board reduces cost, heat
and energy effective multi core CPU implemented as
system-on-chip (SoC) uses 5V, 700mA power rating. This
board is available in three variants named A, B, B+ [7, 9].
B+ is the latest version out of them, runs on ARM11
processor with 512MB RAM operating at 700MHz
frequency. It has a slot for SD Card which can be bootable
with Raspbian, Pidora, Raspbmc etc. Operating Systems. It
comes with four USB2.0 ports to connect the devices like
mouse, keyboard, WiFi adapter etc., making it a full sized
portable pocket computer. It has an Ethernet port to connect
with network. GPIO pins which are used to interface and
control LEDs, switches, sensors and other devices.
With the help of HDMI port, all kinds of monitors
like LCD screens, projectors, TVs also can be connected. In
this board, some additional features like camera connector
are present to interface camera and an audio jack also
available. With all these features, Raspberry Pi is not just
limited to single use, it can be of wide use according to the
application. We can connect it to several monitors at a time
using HDMI extension switch.
B. GSM Module
GSM Modem [6] with Sim900 module is built with
Dual band GSM/GPRS. It has a variable baud rate ranging
from 9600 to 115200. Baud rate can be configurable using
AT commands. It works on frequencies 900 / 1800 MHz. It
operates on 12V regulated power supply. It has a SIM card
slot to insert SIM and a receiving antenna to receive network
signals. It has RS232 interface which allows it to connect de-

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Proceedings of 2015 Global Conference on Communication Technologies(GCCT 2015)
FIG1.2: GSM MODULE
vices like PC, Raspberry Pi, microcontroller etc.
This module can perform the basic functions of a
mobile phone like receiving and sending SMS, voice calls,
and TCP/IP communication [2] over GPRS based on various
AT commands.
AT commands can be sent via the serial port on
Raspberry Pi, thus functions such as dialling and answering
calls, sending and receiving messages and surfing online can
be realized.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows.
Section II explains the system design implementation.
Section III deals with the algorithm of the program. Section
IV shows the results. Section V discusses the conclusion and
future work.
II. IMPLEMENTATION
System Design
The basic aim of this system design is to
continuously capture the surroundings under surveillance
and if interference (any movement) is noticed, the message
is sent to the user notifying him. Refer the fig 2.1.
To send message we use GSM module’s short
message service (SMS) which is connected to Raspberry Pi
through RS232 serial port. A program is written for
continuously capturing the surroundings using camera and
comparing them with the image frame of time shift. This
comparison detects the motion notifying through message.
Raspberry Pi will control all of the accessories at a time viz.,
Camera, SimpleCV and GSM module.
The ARS system uses MPEG-Streamer to stream
live video on monitor connected to Raspberry Pi through
HDMI port. And this is also used to stream the video online
i.e., we can see the live streaming anywhere over internet.
We can connect it to several monitors at a time using HDMI
extension switch.
III. ALGORITHM
Raspberry Pi board uses Linux-Kernel [5] operating
systems supporting programming languages like C, Python
etc., Python language [8] is used in ARS system makes easy
to communicate with serial port, SimpleCV modules.
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FIG2.1: SYSTEM DESIGN FOR ARS SYSTEM
FIG3.1: CODING ALGORITHM FOR ARS SYSTEM
GSM module responds to AT commands through
serial communication. AT means attention. Set of AT
commands perform different functions.
In Raspberry Pi, program written in Python
programming language using SimpleCV module reads
captured images and compares presence of motion and sends
messages from GSM module through serial communication
link. Refer the fig 3.1.
By following below steps the ARS system is implemented:
• Import all the required modules for serial
communication and SimpleCV.
• Initialize serial port for communicating with GSM
module.
• Communicate with camera to read the images of the
surrounding.
• Camera image frames are captured using SimpleCV
modules.
• Successive images are compared with each other.
• This comparison detects the presence of motion.
• If motion is detected, then notification is sent.
• If motion detection fails, then surveillance
continues.
• Message is sent by GSM module which sends
notification to the user.
• Raspberry Pi then clears off the message sent from
GSM Module’s temporary memory.
• Then the surveillance continues.
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Proceedings of 2015 Global Conference on Communication Technologies(GCCT 2015)
FIG4.1: ARS SYSTEM SETUP
FIG4.2: DETECTION OF MOTION BY ALGORITHM
FIG4.3: SENDING MESSAGE TO USER IN PRESENCE OF MOTION
IV. RESULTS
ARS system is practically tested and the results are
obtained successfully.
Results of ARS system are as follows:
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The whole system setup consisting of GSM module,
Raspberry Pi, Camera. Refer the fig 4.1.
A series of images showing the results of our
algorithm by comparing successive images captured by
camera to detect motion. Refer the fig 4.2.
After detection of motion the following result
shows the sending alert message to user. Refer the fig 4.3.
V. CONCLUSION
In bank security system, night time surveillance
becomes very difficult using manual observation. ARS
system can replace manual observation and notifies the
security officials. This ARS system can also be used in wide
areas like industries and home security services. A direct
application of ARS system i.e., surveillance with notification
is explained in the application section. This ARS system
highlights one of the applications by using just a few
features of Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi with its wide features
can be used for multi purposes and have much scope for
future work. This work can be extended in future to discover
the person’s identity under surveillance or else it notifies
user as a suspect. This can be further extended to
autonomous robotic surveillance also.
REFERENCES
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[8] Python Software Foundation[US], https://pypi.python.org/pypi
[9] Raspberry Pi Foundation, http://www.raspberry.org
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