Competition Rules

The goal of this competition is to jump-start work on deployable camera systems.  The rules are aimed to promote development work, and creating an eco-system of projects that can be built on in the future is more important than creating perfect solutions out of the gate.

Categories

There are three categories to compete in:

• UAV/Airborne Cameras: Camera systems in this category are either long-flying fixed-wing or rotorcraft systems or sit-and-stare systems that can land somewhere convenient and use that as a vantage point.  While it is assumed that most systems will require at least some manual guidance (although fully autonomous systems are quite welcome), all systems should provide at least some assistance to an unskilled pilot.

• Hand-Deployed Cameras: Camera systems in this category can be thrown or launched in some way to an appropriate vantage point, and have some kind of release mechanism to support retrieval.

• Software-Only Systems: This category involves running custom software on a mobile phone, leveraging the existing hardware base while supplementing the native recording and uploading capabilities with a system more appropriate to this task.

Team Registration and Deadlines

Registration is open for the duration of the competition.  All teams that wish to compete must have registered by email to deployable at sldrc dot com before the preliminary evaluation of team readiness on December 1st, 2010.  Registration emails should state the team name, a contact name and email address, and which category or categories the team will be competing in.

On or slightly before December 1st, each team is asked to send in an evaluation of current progress.  Ideally, they will have relatively functional solutions at this point.  If at least 75% of the registered and active teams have solutions ready, the competition will be judged.  The evaluation should given as much information as possible about the current state of the system.

Judging

Projects will be judged by a team, to be assembled.  Each project will receive a composite score averaged across all eight judging criteria.  When possible, judging will require a demo for the judges, but recorded demos may be used if this isn't feasible.

Judging Criteria

Each team will receive between zero and five points in each of the following eight categories:

Functionality:

• Deployability: Can the system be deployed in an urban environment in a realistic way, such that the camera is in an appropriate position to capture video, and then retrieved?  For software-only systems, this means installation and distribution on the chosen platforms.

• Operating Life: Is the system sufficiently durable to survive repeated deployments, and do system batteries provide sufficient recording time?  The initial recording time goal is a minimum of two hours, with an ideal recording time of eight hours.

• Video Quality: Is the recorded video of high enough quality to be useful?  The initial video quality goal is 320x240; bit-rate to be determined.  Optics quality, field of view, and low-light performance will be taken into account.

• Network Integrity: Does the system support uploading video across multiple networks and in a resilient manner?  Does the system deal well with upload interruptions?

• Privacy Preservation and Verifiability: Does the system obscure the source of the video and of data traffic to the degree possible?  Does the system maintain a (possibly strongly pseudonymous) audit trail to verify that the video has not been edited after recording?  Does the system support additional privacy preservation features, such as optional face detection and blurring?

Utility:

• Ease of Use: Is the system easy enough to use, both with respect to software and hardware, that it can be realistically used in the field by the target users?

• Integration: Does the system provide a unified experience for shooting video, managing uploads, reviewing it privately, and publishing it?

• Cost: Each category has a different cost target.  For the UAV category, the maximum unit cost is $800 and the target cost is $300.  For manually deployed systems, the maximum cost is $400 and the target cost is $150.  This category does not apply to software-only systems.

• Constructibility: Can the system be built successfully by the target groups?  Are all commercial components used in the system readily available?  For software systems, this means building from source.

• Documentation Quality: Is the system completely documented in a readable and professional manner?  Does the documentation completely explain construction, use, and troubleshooting the system?

Each team is eligible for up to five bonus points in each of the following categories:

Bonus Points:

• Real-World Involvement: Has the team involved a real-world group in the development of the system?  What feedback did they receive from that group?  Is the group planning on using the system?

• Production Chain: Has the team set up a production chain for any custom components?  While a group of end-users should be able to assemble the system from scratch, existing group circuit board orders and other similar setup work lowers the bar significantly.  Not relevant for software-only systems.

Requirements:

In order to compete, all systems must use an FSF-approved free software license for all source code and an Open Source Hardware license on all hardware components.  All documentation must be under the GFDL or a compatible license, or the Creative Commons BY-SA (or less restrictive) license.  All systems must state a legal regime they are targeting, and must be legally compliant in that regime.

Partial Solutions:

While they will lose points for doing so, teams are welcome to submit partial solutions.  For instance, a back end software-only solution that handles the management and distribution of uploaded video only, or a hardware platform-only solution that provides only a basic control system but appropriate hardware and networking capabilities to run a future software solution.