Interactive wide-angle viewcamera for a virtual watch tower : A part of the Ngulia Project

Sammanfattning: The declining population of black rhinoceroses in Tsavo West national park, Kenya, has served as the driving force behind Project Ngulia, with Ngulia serving as an enclosed area within the park. As of now, the area is equipped with multiple cameras connected to a system that automatically classify animals and humans. This thesis aims to investigate the suitability of the Insta360 One X2 camera acting as a virtual watch tower for capturing and streaming 360° images. This will work in real-time, providing a remote surveillance experience for the park rangers thereby optimizing their work. A system was implemented to create a efficient workflow, which includes stitching of the 360° images, file transfer protocol for image transmission and storage, as well as socket programming to facilitate port monitoring and communication. Additionally, the compat- ibility of two single board computers, LattePanda and Rock 4 SE, with the implemented system was evaluated. User experience methods as field studies, workshops and a user interview were also performed. The work has been developed in Sweden, resulting in limited availability for testing at the target location during the initial months. The outcome was a both locally and remotely working system, together with LattePanda, capturing images of the waterhole in Ngulia. However, because of the conclusions drawn regarding the power supply and the lack of essential functions in the 360° camera, the system was taken home for further research. Propositions is presented regarding future work, some being that the projects within Ngulia team may collaborate to enhance hardware efficiency and explore the utilization of 360° images in educational and entertainment contexts.