JSE_V4_N2_RP1 Charles C. Castello Jeffrey Fan David Roelant Journal on Software Engineering 2230 – 7168 4 2 1 6 Optimal Sensor Placement, Omnidirectional Camera, Wireless Sensor Network, Monte Carlo In recent years, interest in visual sensor networks has grown significantly due to the ever increasing amount of commercial, military, and aerospace applications, including video surveillance, target tracking and identification, traffic monitoring, and smart homes. A key issue, however, in visual sensor network design is optimal placement of cameras, due to a number of challenges from environmental complexities to application metrics. Therefore, this paper presents a novel design scheme for optimal sensor placement of omnidirectional cameras operating in a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). This is achieved by representing the environment using a 2-D grid map with static obstacles identified at different locations. An optimal placement metric is calculated for each grid point based on line-of-site in all possible directions where the known obstacles are taken into consideration. Distance is taken into account using exponential decay. Optimal areas of camera placement are determined based on the areas generating the largest optimal placement metrics. Statistical analysis of this methodology is examined by using Monte Carlo Analysis with various amounts of obstacles and cameras in a defined space. October - December 2009 Copyright © 2009 i-manager publications. All rights reserved. i-manager Publications http://www.imanagerpublications.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=1067