ARS8VER

Project Overview
Embedded Spark 2011

Executive Summary

This report will present the project ARS8VER for the Embedded Spark 2011 competition, setting out detailed technical characteristics
of the solution and its feasibility to be developed as a product.

ARS8VER is a technological tool that aims to address the high mortality rates when natural disasters occur. Currently the tools to
search for survivors in a disaster situation are not efficient and do not take advantage of available resources, which becomes a big
problem because in such situations these resources are scarce and people die because the lack of timely assistance.

ARS8VER is a device that can fly over the areas affected by natural disasters being able to identify itself survivors that need to be
rescued. It is a low cost solution that is capable to reach difficult access areas and to inform relief agencies the exact location and
living conditions of identified victims, finally presenting an overview of the affected areas allowing the relief agencies to design an
efficient rescue plan.

Earthquakes, landslides, floods and many other unfortunate events modify the environment and destroy the technological
infrastructure of a place, creating a high difficulty for saving lives. ARS8VER is a small, lightweight and independent from technology
infrastructure device that is able to collect solar energy for its operation. These characteristics make it a flexible tool, adaptable to the
environment, optimizing the ability of human beings to help when a natural disaster occur.

ARS8VER combine different technologies such as geo location, visual pattern recognition and sounds processing that make up an
embedded system that works under Windows Embedded Compact 7 OS. The device can be controlled from a desktop application
on a computer but considering the portability of the solution and the context to which it applies, it can be controlled via a Windows
Phone 7 device. The application on the phone

delivers rescuers ARS8VER camera flow in real time and processed information from its location and identification functions.

8VER is a feasible and attractive tool for any organization related to the rescue of people in disaster situations. The following topics
will detail in depth each of the features of our solution, which can save the lives of many people in a situation that can surprise us
anytime and anywhere.

Problem Analysis

Natural disasters do not discriminate places or populations, they are almost unpredictable and their consequences can be as
punctual as death or as enduring as the poverty that is generated in affected places.

Merely between 2010 and 2011, earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and Japan reported about 350,000 deaths and several million of
displaced people, causing economical, nutritional and medical problems, and showing up the importance that different fields of
knowledge contribute from their own science with a solution.

Many of the people involved in this disaster situations survived, but then died because the lack of timely assistance, including
thousands of children who remain vulnerable with the chaos of a disaster situation. One of the causes is that relief agencies have
insufficient resources to assist all affected people and also some affected areas are not easily access and the mechanisms used to
identify victims are primitive and inefficient.

Thinking of making these rescue processes more efficient and reduce the high number of victims left by natural disasters, we have
developed ARS8VER, an intelligent device that can fly over areas that are difficult to reach during a natural disaster, being able to
identify affected zones and deliver information to relief agencies about the location and conditions in which the victims are.

Project Analysis

ARS8VER consists on a low cost quadricopter that integrates various technologies through the use of an eBox-3310A-MSJK making
the device an effective tool to identify human lives in danger.
The ebox runs an application using Windows Embedded Compact 7 as the operating system, in which it is performed data and
signal processing of all devices and technologies that are integrated in our solution.

ARS8VER can be controlled through a desktop application, but considering the portability of the device it could be also controlled
through a Windows Phone 7 application. Using this two interfaces it is possible to control the movements of ARS8VER changing its
direction or elevation.

The communication between ARS8VER and the desktop or WP7 application will be done through an integrated WiFi module in the
ebox, making possible to transmit the information processed within a minimum range of time, having achieved an optimal
implementation of Long-Range Wi-Fi.

ARS8VER integrates a camera that could be used by rescuers to monitor unreachable places in real-time, places in which it‟s possible
to find victims and each taken image is processed by the ebox for the identification of human figures within a context, through a
facial recognition algorithm executed by the embedded application.

Thus, in a disaster situation, ARS8VER recognize people who need help sending a notification to the rescuers and informing them of
this fact through the application.

ARS8VER is also able to process sounds. Through the implementation of digital signal processing of audio, is intended to filter the
data received by the ARS8VER microphone to differentiate human sounds, i.e. frequencies between 90 and 500 Hz, where it is most
likely to find human voices, in order to identify potential callings for assistance. ARS8VER also notify this event to the application on
the WP7 or the PC.

ARS8VER it is also equipped with a GPS module that will allow rescuers to know the exact position of those who need to be assisted.
This information will be received by rescuers in the Windows Phone 7 or in the desktop application. In this way, they will be able to
have a map with information of the location and condition of affected people in a given area and this information may be used by
relief agencies to design a good plan of assistance, to prioritize the areas that have worse conditions and to optimize the use of
resources that become always limited in a disaster situation. The GPS will deliver the ARS8VER exact position, flight speed and path
traveled, to have control over the device.

When the battery runs out, ARS8VER slowly descends and lands, sending the Windows Phone 7or the PC application its last location
so the rescuers could pick it up. Thinking on a self-sufficient and environmentally friendly solution, ARS8VER integrates solar panels.
ARS8VER, depending on weather conditions and making use of a charge controller will start charging itself its battery.

The embedded system used by ARS8VER is necessary because it allows the system to process a lot of data from video, audio, signal
processing and other kind of flows that require a significant processor. The embedded system is designed to handle a rudimentary
environment, that‟s why it is better to work with and embedded system instead of a cellphone or a notebook.
ARS8VER is an innovative, realistic and effective solution that using the latest Microsoft technologies can become a key to save lives
in a disaster situation, a solution that could surprise us at anytime and anywhere.

User Experience

ARS8VER is installed in the quadricopter and rescuers only need to turn on the device in the open place in which it is intended to
start the flight and the airscrews will be ready to start the tour according to instructions about direction and elevation sent through
the WP7. Here are some pictures of the interaction with the ARS8VER:

A perso An option to control the ARS8VER is through Windows Phone 7.

The application's main screen has three basic functions: check the flight map and current location of the quadricopter, check the
images captured by the device and check the flights stats of the ARS8VER, as shown in the picture below:

ARS8VER Geolocalitation feature

When the rescuers use the option to check the flight map the user will have an interface like the image below where, as an example,
the ARS8VER has identified 1 person in the location indicated on the screen:

When the rescuers use the option to check ARS8VER‟s camera they will be able to handle the direction and elevation of the device
using the phone's accelerometer and displaying real-time images of what the quadricopter has in front, making possible that the
rescuer monitor a difficult access area as you can see in the image below:

ARS8VER Camera feature

Technical Architecture

Technical Architecture Diagram 1 and 2

Overall Embedded System Architecture

Solar Panel
45 cm
(Powerfilm 15V Embedded:
100mA Flexible
(eBox-3310A-
Solar Panel
MSJK)
MPT15-150) Lithium Polymer Battery
GPS (Microsoft (Up To 35 mins
Pharos GPS-500 III On Flight)
GPS Receiver)

Integrated Wi-Fi Device

29 cm (Up To 40 mts. –
User Drive)

VGA Camera +
Mic (INFO)

Embedded System Architecture

Hardware Components

ƍ eBox-3310A-MSJK Embedded Platform Device

ƍ AR.Drone Quadricopter
ƍ GPS - Global Positioning System
ƍ Digital Camera
ƍ Digital Audio/Video Signal Processing.
ƍ PV (Photovoltaic) Modules.
ƍ Long-Range Wi-Fi

Hardware Components Diagram

 Data Flow

+ + GPS

E-Box

WP7

Web App

Data Flow Diagram

The information through S8VER basically works in Client/Server architecture. At first there‟s a stage where the data of the
peripherals is processed and organized so the final user(s) gets it in a proper way. In this context, the word „proper‟ refers to
the presentation of the records taken from the camera, microphone and GPS into a © 2011 Microsoft – Bing Map that will
contain the detailed information about the whole path and the different areas already overflown, including number of
people detected, GPS precise coordinates, and images (or video if required) taken from those areas.

This information established over a Bing Map will be available weather in a Windows Phone 7 if there‟s one available or just
through any laptop with a web app that S8VER will run.
Data Processing

In order to follow a consistent flow of data, ARS8VER establishes two stages where the info taken from peripherals is
transformed (processed):

1. The audio taken from the mic installed in ARS8VER is handled, using a filtering process that involves, at first,
a direct contact with DirectShow middleware where the multimedia data is manipulated, so a band pass
software filter can then be applied and human voice frequencies are recognized (This is depurating the
signal so the elements outside the range from 300 to 3000 Hz vanish away). While this precise matter is
achieved, the image analyze process is executed, coming into play the face recognition software
implementation. It‟s important to highlight that there‟s a first essential phase where the noise from the
quadricopter helixes is filtered.

The face recognition technology actually has become a very popular option for its simplicity of
implementation and great results. In order to achieve this goal ARS8VER proceeds with the inclusion of the
OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision) library and implementation of the “facedetect.c” class, leading to a
track of evidence of human presence in the current frame processed (having in mind that the code is
executed with a rate of 25 frames per second).

Since it is our endeavor to be aware of the battery status, with the recharge controller this information flows
into the application through a bitstream that‟s easily recognized by the ARS8VER program. There‟s no need
to make any changes over the info provided in this communication procedure.

For the GPS data input the process is quite simpler, since the device delivers to our application the
coordinates with a rate of every 5 frames (i.e. 5 GPS coordinates per second) and we don‟t need to change
a thing about the given coordinates.

2. Since the data acquired from the peripherals has already gone through the first processing „area‟, where it
was set in the adequate format for us to organize it, we now turn to the task of creating the product
essence, the whole “location-of-victims-system”. In order to do so, it‟s now pertinent to create the map that
gathers all of the material and constitutes the final solution, where the user(s) are able to see where are the
victims in the Bing™ Map (Making use of the Bing™ Map App SDK.